The Escalator that Almost MURDERED Donald J. Trump

A condensed overview of 15 hours of Fox News for the week ending 9/28/25

Last week Fox News had three stories to tell - former FBI director James Comey would finally face justice for a crime the network couldn’t explain; Donald J. Trump was nearly murdered by a malfunctioning escalator at the U.N. and American cities were being overrun with mobs of blue-haired, transgender, Antifa activists backed by left-wing billionaires.

Greg Gutfeld screamed at Jessica Tarlov like a petulant child after she mentioned that right-wing violence was more prevalent than left-wing violence. Jesse Watters completely forgot statements he made immediately following the murder of Charlie Kirk and Sean Hannity dedicated entire episodes to rehashing old grievances surrounding what he called the political persecution Donald J. Trump.

Fox News personalities downplayed the pending government shutdown and praised President Trump for what they claimed was a brilliant speech at the United Nations.

Shows I watched on Fox News last week:

• Fox & Friends

• The Five

• Hannity

• Trump’s speech at the United Nations

• Multiple Trump press conferences

An Escalator Tried to Kill the President

Last Tuesday as the President Trump was on his way to make a speech for the United Nations General Assembly when he found himself at the base of a stalled escalator. After the escalator abruptly stopped the first lady briefly paused before she walked up what had become a set of stationary stairs.

The president and his entourage followed without incident.

Later at the start of Trump’s speech the teleprompters malfunctioned. The president was forced to read his prepared remarks from a printed copy in a three-ring binder.

For the folks at Fox News there was only one explanation for these technical hiccups - SABOTAGE! I’m honestly surprised they didn’t find a way to blame the transgender community.

The escalator incident was discussed on every show I covered over the course of three days.

“The UN sabotaged President Trump at the escalator,” said Emily Compango.

“After he and Melania were forced to climb a broken escalator,” said Greg Gutfeld.

“If the first lady wasn’t in great shape, she would have fallen . . . and then a teleprompter that didn’t work,” said President Trump as he stood before the General Assembly at the United Nations.

“Yeah, they sabotaged them. Yeah, and they could have hurt the first lady and then they sabotaged the teleprompter. Yeah. I mean, this is a this is an insurrection,” said Watters.

“The escalator leading to the chamber stopped the moment the president, the first lady. If you look at this, you know, stepped onto it,” said Sean Hannity.

“The leader of the free world is on the escalator in Secret Service looking like. What do we do?” said Lawrence Jones.

“Was it sabotage or a staffer? The UN is pointing a finger at Trump’s team for a stalled escalator and a frozen teleprompter,” said Gutfeld.

“It froze. He is standing there. It makes him more of a target,” said Paul Mauro.

“That fact that the elevator, escalator and the teleprompter at the same time. That seems weird to me,” said Dana Perino.

Trump’s speech was far more alarming than any technical glitch. It contained several exaggerations and false statements.

• Trashed Biden

• Boasted that he ended seven wars

  • Blamed the United Nations for not helping him

  • Repeatedly trashed the U.N.

  • Whined that he should get the Nobel Peace Prize

• Lied about the price of groceries, energy, gasoline.

• Claimed he had defeated inflation - inflation has slightly risen since his start of his second term.

• Made wild claims about trillions of dollars of investment coming into the United States.

• Decried what he called ‘globalism’

• Claimed climate change was a hoax

  • Went on an extended rant about wind power

  • Called climate change a ‘con-job’

• Complained that he wasn’t hired to renovate the United Nations building decades earlier

• Criticized other countries for recognizing a Palestinian state

• Accused the United Nations of causing an invasion of undocumented immigrants into the United States

• Demonized migrants and people seeking asylum

• Boasted that he was right about everything.

• Singled out and attacked Brazil

• Called Christianity the most persecuted religion on the planet today

  • Christianity is the largest religion in the world with 2.3-2.4 billion believers; the Roman Catholic Church is the largest Christian denomination.

  • Christians do face persecution in some parts of the world but several other religious groups also face persecution, discrimination and violence.

“It’s time to end the failed experiment of open borders. You have to end it now. Let’s see. I can tell you I’m really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell. . . And the United States, we have still radicalized environmentalists, and they want the factories to stop. Everything should stop. No more cows. We don’t want cows anymore. I guess they want to kill all the cows. They want to do the things that are just unbelievable,” said Trump.

But Her Emails…No Really…

On Thursday the Department of Justice announced that it issued a two-page criminal indictment against former FBI director James Comey for making a false statement and obstruction of a congressional proceeding, stemming from his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2020.

The indictment followed a public request Trump made to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Truth Social to prosecute his political enemies. In late September Erik Siebert, the then interim U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Virginia resigned from his position due to pressure from President Trump.

Siebert and others in the U.S. attorney’s office thought the case against Comey was too weak to prosecute. Trump has since appointed one of his personal attorneys Lindsey Halligan, as Siebert’s replacement.

Halligan has no prosecutorial experience. Soon after she took the position she successfully convinced a grand jury to indict Comey. It was her first presentation before a grand jury. Most of her legal experience has been defending insurance companies in Florida.

Trump’s many public statements about the case against Comey could make it a lot easier for his lawyers to argue that the charges against him are politically motivated.

On Friday Sean Hannity used the criminal indictment against Comey to go on a nearly 15-minute rant about what he believed was the persecution of Donald J. Trump.

I pulled some talking points from his extended monologue.

“But here’s the truth tonight. James Comey, the former FBI director, is not the victim of a weaponized Department of Justice. Here’s the fact the biggest victim of government weaponization, corruption, abuse of power in American history is a man by the name of Donald J. Trump. He has been the target of a long running deep state conspiracy at the local level, state level, federal level. Nobody on the left ever condemned any of this . . . for how this conspiracy, or as Kash Patel calls a grand conspiracy against President Trump, has been unfolding over the past decade. From the moment he and Melania Trump came down that escalator . . . information about Donald Trump and this bought and paid for a Russian disinformation dossier was all paid for by the Clinton campaign,” said Hannity.

This was the first lie of many in Hannity’s rambling speech. During the 2016 Presidential primaries the infamous Russian dossier, created by the research firm Fusion GPS, was initially funded by The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative media company.

The Free Beacon wanted to find damaging information on Trump to help boost Marco Rubio who was one of the of candidates vying for the Republican nomination. When it became clear that Trump would be the Republican Party nominee for president the company stopped paying Fusion GPS.

It was only then that the Clinton campaign’s law firm Perkins Coie hired Fusion GPS to continue its research.

The dossier was also not the reason the intelligence community looked into possible Russian collusion with the Trump presidential campaign.

The investigation started after George Papadopoulos, an advisor to the Trump campaign, boasted to an Australian diplomat in a London bar in May 2016 that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton.

Three months later after Wikileaks published hacked emails from the Clinton campaign, the Australian government contacted the U.S. government about the conversation its diplomat had with Papadopoulos. The FBI investigation, ‘Crossfire Hurricane,’ into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia began on July 31, 2016.

The final version of the Steele dossier was completed in December 2016 about five months after the FBI’s investigation had already begun.

Hannity continued naming various players in what he called the vast conspiracy against Trump. The following are just names and catch phrases Hannity weaved together during his nonsensical tirade.

“Peter Strzok. . . .Bar talk. . .no reasonable prosecutor would prosecute. . . .unless you’re raiding Mar-A-Lago. . . from the Clinton email case . . . Donald Trump was in the Ritz-Carlton with hookers that were urinating on him . . . Ruin the life of one Carter Page . . . President Obama did not like that assessment, not only for FISA warrants, but to also sabotage an incoming president. . . . The left liberals, all the legacy media mob . . . Robert Mueller. . .and set the trap and the deep state attacks on him. . .unrelenting . . .impeachment one is behind us. . . the FBI puts cinderblocks on the scales of that election,” said Hannity.

He also brought up Hunter Biden’s laptop which is not related to the case against Comey.

“Remember the Hunter Biden laptop scandal? . . .But they did meet weekly with big tech and social media companies . . . Remember 51 former intelligence officials. . . because they knew Bob Costello. . . Rudy Giuliani’s attorney. . . Mar-A-Lago was raided . . . Third presidential election, more cinder blocks . . .Trump wasn’t safe in Florida. . . .Tish James . . . the one that said she’s going after one man, Donald Trump. Another hoax. . . . Alvin Bragg . . .And on August 1st, 2023, Biden’s weaponized DOJ. They indicted Trump for contesting the results of the 2020 election . . . Hey, remember, Fani Willis also indicted Trump . . . Entire justice system, the entire deep state, the entire legacy media mob all weaponized against one man,” said Hannity.

The full-length monologue was rambling and random. The average Fox viewer would have difficulty following the many twists and turns Hannity included but they heard the names of the usual villains in Trump’s never-ending victim complex and that’s all that really mattered.

Jessica Tarlov Corrects the Record

Earlier that day on “The Five,” Jessica Tarlov, the liberal on the panel, managed to include some specifics about the case against Comey.

“The good news is, is that this has already been investigated and Comey has already been vindicated. So there was a special counsel as there’s supposed to be. And when you say they, they, they they what the Democrats did that was appropriate is there was a special counsel named Jack Smith, and he is the one that brought the charges, because you can’t have a president getting on social media or straight to your face saying,” said Tarlov.

Her co-host Jesse Watters interrupted her.

“Why can’t you? What are you going to do about it? What what are you going to do about it now?”

“You are going to lose in court,” said Tarlov.

Watters interrupted her again.

Over his yelling Tarlov continued.

“He appointed enough members of the Supreme Court to get away with everything, and that’s essentially what’s going on here. So you had Michael Horowitz who was the special counsel who said in his report the overwhelming weight of that evidence supports Comey’s version of the conversation. They also tried to go after Andy McCabe. They couldn’t pull that off. . .I think that everybody should pay attention to what Andy McCarthy was saying this morning. And he has a piece up on The National Review. The indictment against Comey should be dismissed. He said to Maria Bartiromo, this indictment is not about the Russia investigation, which is what you want to make it seem like, but it’s not at all. “It’s completely detached from that investigation, and it seems to be premised on something that’s not true. I don’t think there’s a case. I love Ted about Ted Cruz, but McCabe never said that Comey authorized it..” This is about leaking to the press. “I don’t think that the case gets to trial.” If you want it to get dismissed, maybe it’s for selective prosecution. Look no further than the president’s social media post or what he’s saying to those gaggles. And also, it makes no sense to me why Donald Trump doesn’t like Jim Comey because Comey delivered him the election. If he had not come out 11 days before talking about whatever’s on Anthony Weiner’s laptop and then saying, oh, actually, there’s no problem, you would have had two terms of Hillary Clinton and you would have liked it because it would have been amazing, I did notice,” said Tarlov.

Greg Gutfeld Screamed Over Jessica Tarlov but was Still Wrong

Last Wednesday Joshua Jahn, a 29-year-old gunman, killed two people before turning the gun on himself outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas, Texas.

Jahn killed two ICE detainees and injured another after he shot into a van at the facility.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it found at least one bullet casing with the phrase “Anti-ICE” written on it. The department also found more evidence at the shooter’s home that indicated he wanted to harm ICE agents.

At the moment there is no indication that the shooter received any help from anyone or was working with an organization.

While discussing the crime Greg Gutfeld declared that most political violence was committed by left-wing extremists.

“This is our brainwashing works,” said Gutfeld.

“There is a litany of examples,” said Jessica Tarlov.

“You will not have them. If I gave you two months to look for them, you could not find them because they’ve been debunked,” said Gutfeld.

Here’s a partial list of domestic terrorism acts committed by right-wing extremists.

• September 28, 2025 - Grand Blanc Township Church attack* (Investigation ongoing)

  • Man drove his truck into a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, shot ten people and set fire to the building - four people died. Possible motivation for the attack - shooter had a deep-seated hatred for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Shooter had right-wing political views

• September 10, 2025 Evergreen High School Shooting (same day as Charlie Kirk assassination)

  • A 16-year-old gunman shot and injured two students. He died by a self-inflicted gunshot. He was radicalized by an extremist (Neo-Nazi) network. Injured two.

• August 12, 2025 - CDC Shooter

  • Guman fired more than 180 shots at the headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He was angry about COVID-19 vaccines. He killed one police officer.

• June 14, 2025 - The Assassination of Melissa Hortman

  • A gunman killed Hortman, a Democratic Minnesota State Rep, her husband and their family dog. He also injured another Democratic Senator John Hoffman along with his wife. The suspect had a list of Democratic lawmakers he intended to kill.

• Due to space I cannot fit the details of the following politically motivated terrorist attack but here’s a partial list.

  • Dollar Tree General Shooting, Jacksonville, Florida - motivated by hatred of Black people. Three people were murdered.

  • Buffalo, NY Tops Grocery Story Shooting - motivated by hatred of Black people. Ten people were murdered.

  • El Paso, TX Walmart Shooting - motivated by hatred of Latino people. Twenty-three people were murdered with 22 injuries.

  • Poway Synagogue Shooting, Poway, CA - motivated by hatred of Jewish people. Shooter and attempted arsonist killed one woman, injured three and attempted to kill 50.

  • Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting, Pittsburg, PA - motivated by hatred of Jewish people. Shooter killed 11 people, injured two.

  • Pipe Bombs - Cesar Sayoc Jr. - Trump supporter, sent pipe bombs to media personalities and Democratic lawmakers. No injuries but bombs were sent to 11 locations.

  • James Harris Jackson New York City, NY - a white man traveled from Baltimore, MD to New York City specifically to murder Black people. Killed one Black man in a fatal stabbing.

  • Unite the Right Rally Charlottesville, VA - Heather Heyer murdered by a white driver with Neo Nazi beliefs who intentionally drove his car into a crowd of counterprotestors.

  • Dylann Roof - Mother Emmanuel AME Church Charleston, South Carolina - a white man with Neo Nazi beliefs was welcomed into the church Bible study group. He shot and killed nine Black churchgoers.

  • Sikh Temple Shooting, Oak Creek, WI - a white man with ties to the Neo Nazi movement targeted a Sikh Temple due to the religion of the congregation. He killed six, wounded four.

  • Unitarian Universalist Church Shooting Knoxville, TN - a white gunman targeted the church to kill liberals. He killed one, injured several.

  • Oklahoma City Bombing - considered the worst domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history. A white man drove a truck with a homemade fertilizer bomb next to the federal building in Oklahoma City. He killed 168 people including 19 children and injured several hundred. The bomber held anti-government views and was inspired by The Turner Diaries a far-right novel that promotes Neo Nazi ideology.

  • Abortion clinic bombings and murders - over the course of decades countless abortion clinics have been the target of attacks by far-right anti-choice activists.

    • 11 healthcare workers murdered

    • 42 bombings

    • 200 acts of arson

    • 531 assaults

    • Untold number of threats of violence and bomb threats to abortion providers

Jesse Watters Couldn’t Remember What He Said

On Thursday on “The Five” during a discussion about lowering the temperature of heated political rhetoric Jesse Watters seemed to completely forget his past statements.

“And what are the Democrats saying? They’re saying this is war. They’re saying that this is the Gestapo,” said Watters.

“You said we are at war,” said Jessica Tarlov.

“No, that’s what I said they said Chris Murphy said, quote, ‘this is war. We’re at war and we have to do whatever is necessary to win it.’ And that’s not the kind of language you use when you’re in a democracy,” said Watters.

Watters said several alarming things the night Charlie Kirk was assassinated.

Sept. 10, 2025 - The Five

“Yeah, we’re sick, we’re sad. We’re angry and we’re resolute, and we’re going to avenge Charlie’s death in the way Charlie would want it to be avenged,” said Watters.

“You got riots in L.A.. They are at war with us. Whether we want to accept it or not. They are at war with us. What are we going to do about it? How much political violence are we going to tolerate?” said Watters.

Sept. 10, 2025 - Jesse Watters Primetime

“This is a war we didn’t ask for. And this is a war they can’t win,” said Watters.

Even Fox News Couldn’t Support Trump’s Claims About Tylenol

Last Monday President Trump and Robert Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services issued a statement about what they claimed was a link between women who used Tylenol during pregnancy and increased rates of autism.

That morning Madeline Rivera, a Fox News correspondent, issued a statement that was in direct conflict with the president’s warnings.

“The Trump administration has been focused on finding a cause for rising autism rates. So earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal had reported that HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr was investigating whether using Tylenol while pregnant increase the risk for autism. Their findings are expected to warn pregnant women against using Tylenol unless they have high fevers . . .Researchers at Mount Sinai found children exposed to acetaminophen during pregnancy may be more likely to develop neurodevelopment disorders like autism and ADHD. But another study from the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2024 concluded the opposite, stating using the drug while pregnant was not associated with an increased risk of autism. Kenvue the owner of Tylenol says in a statement. We believe independent sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism. We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risks of this poses for expecting mothers. There are reports that officials are also expected to announce a drug called leucovorin as a potential treatment for autism.”

The PBS News Hour included two extended segments last week about the safety of Tylenol. The network also spoke to an advocate for people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder who argued that Trump’s statements about autism were stigmatizing and would cause harm to people with autism spectrum disorder.

Stories Fox News Ignored

Every week I compare the hours I’ve watched on Fox News to five hours of “The PBS News Hour,” the following list are stories that PBS covered that Fox News did not. Source - PBS News Hour transcripts. This list is slightly truncated due to space.

• Updates to the Israel-Hamas War

  • At the U.N., Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas said his people reject the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. Appearing via video after the U.S. denied his visa, Abbas said that Palestinians in Gaza have been facing a “war of genocide.” And he pledged that Hamas, which is seen as a rival to the Palestinian Authority, would have no role in governing the territory after the war ends. (PBS News Hour)

  • Last Thursday, in Gaza, local health officials say Israeli strikes killed at least 17 Palestinians across the territory, including 10 children. Several explosions took down tents and houses, in some instances crushing families as they slept inside. (PBS News Hour)

  • Extremist Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has recently been its highest since the U.N. started recording. Over the last two years, several Americans have allegedly been among those killed there. Amna Nawaz sat down with three American families seeking accountability and justice for the death or detention of their loved ones. (PBS News Hour)

• In an undercover operation last year, the FBI recorded Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, accepting $50,000 in cash after suggesting he could help these undercover government — undercover agents posing as business executives to secure government contracts in a second Trump administration. The Justice Department shut down the case earlier this year. (PBS News Hour)

• A federal judge ruled that a massive offshore wind project can move forward after it was abruptly halted by the Trump administration last month. The $6 billion wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut known as Revolution Wind was 80% complete. The Trump administration can still appeal the decision. (PBS News Hour)

• In Southern China, authorities closed schools and businesses and flights were canceled as the region braces for the impact of Super Typhoon Ragasa. Ragasa is one of the strongest typhoons in years and has already left a trail of destruction in its wake. In the Philippines, at least three people were killed and more than 17,000 have been displaced amid flooding and landslides. And in Taiwan, 30 people went missing after heavy rain caused a barrier lake to overflow. Dozens of others were injured across the island. (PBS News Hour)

• At the U.N., China announced a new climate goal, to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 7 to 10% over the next decade. President Xi Jinping made the pledge via video to more than 100 world leaders attending a climate summit. China emits more global warming pollutants than any nation, but it also is the world’s largest producer of renewable energy like wind and solar power. (PBS News Hour)

• In France, a Paris court sentenced former President Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison for criminal conspiracy. Sarkozy was found guilty of attempting to fund his 2007 presidential campaign with money from Libya. In a surprise twist, the court said he will be incarcerated during any appeal process, which would make him the first former president to serve prison time in the nation’s modern era. (PBS News Hour)

• The U.S. Supreme Court is letting the Trump administration move forward with freezing $4 billion in foreign aid that had been allocated by Congress. Mr. Trump said last month that he would not spend the money and instead invoked something called a pocket rescission. That’s a rarely used maneuver that allows Mr. Trump to bypass Congress to hold up the funds. (PBS News Hour)

• The Justice Department has sued eight states to compel them to share their voter registration lists with the federal government. State officials oppose the move because of concerns about how the information will be used by the Trump administration. It comes as President Trump continues to target election systems, including mail-in ballots, ahead of the midterm elections. (PBS News Hour)

By the Numbers