Quick 🧵thread🧵

With the news that Trump freed the hostages and brokered an Israel/Hamas ceasefire, I thought it would be a good time to check in on the folks who compared the president to Hitler over the last few years, for reasons that I hope are obvious to you.

Remember? ⤵️ You may think the “Trump is literally Hitler” phrase is just a silly joke.

But for years, media outlets and left-wing voices on the internet have insisted that, no, really, Trump is just like Hitler.

Few have done so with as much gusto as @CNN.

🧵THREAD🧵

A newly declassified CIA report on Joe Biden & Ukraine blows the doors off claims from the legacy press, in the lead up to the 2020 election and beyond, that Trump was pushing a “conspiracy theory” about Biden’s corruption.

Remember how the press buried Burisma? ⤵️ First, the facts. The report unearths how Biden blocked the release of intel from Ukrainian sources validating allegations of bribery tied to Biden’s diplomatic push to oust a prosecutor there in 2015, tied to his son Hunter’s work with the gas company Burisma.

More details:

https://twitter.com/gopoversight/status/1975565941770453250

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The media are melting down about former FBI director Jim Comey’s indictment, calling it Trump’s “retribution.”

But if prosecuting a political rival is such an outrage, why’d they cheer along when Biden went after Trump, Bannon & Navarro?

Some side-by-sides ⤵️ I want you to help me spot the difference in tone.

With Comey, @CNN put five — five! — reporters on the byline to declare the indictment was an “escalation” in “Trump’s effort to prosecute his political enemies.”

Where was that when Biden’s DOJ indicted Bannon? “A victory”

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The outrage over Kimmel’s canning is incredibly stupid, but it’s also enormously rich coming from the same media outlets who have cheered the government actually censoring people, particularly during COVID.

Let me know if you can spot the difference in tone? ⤵️ This @CNN headline made me think this story needed a thread.

Kimmel’s suspension is “straight from a European strongman’s playbook,” per @CNN’s @brianstelter.

When Biden cracked down on free speech during Covid, CNN hyped up the effort.

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I know there’s a lot going on but we just had a media conspiracy implode that I think captures something important about the corporate press.

Did you hear about how Trump was allegedly going after John Bolton as retribution for his criticism?

Well…follow along ⤵️ We saw a week straight of media suggestions that Trump was abusing the powers of the state to deal out “retribution” to John Bolton following the news that the FBI (“Trump’s DOJ!” headlines rang out) raided his house.

We were in “unsettling” times, to hear @nytimes tell it.

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A single poll has bootstrapped a media narrative that DC residents are outraged by Trump’s takeover.

I poked around the cross tabs of the poll — of 600 or so of DC’s more comfortable residents — and I think it’s pretty suspect.

How come? Follow along: ⤵️ Let’s start with the poll. The @washingtonpost talked to 604 people, of whom 90% — 90%! — self-described as living in “very good” or “good” neighborhoods.

So, fine. 80% of people who like where they live in DC are upset.

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I feel like I’m losing my mind about the Biden autopen pardons.

The former president said he made every decision. His staff says that he didn’t actually make the final call on thousands of them.

We’re supposed to treat this as normal?

I try to unpack. ⤵️ This got new life from a Biden interview w/ @nytimes.

NYT leads by repeating Biden’s claim that he made the calls…burying the admissions that 1) he really didn’t & 2) where he allegedly did, the aids sending details to the autopen weren’t in the room when the call was made…

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The coverage of the anti-ICE riots in LA is perhaps the clearest example of advocacy “journalism” in Trump’s second term.

Reading the reporting, you would never know the most significant fact: the American people support Trump’s deportations.

Follow along ⤵️ First, the facts about the riots.

You’ve seen the burning cars, looting & clashes between police & protestors.

Demonstrators blocked the freeway, attacked ICE agents, all in an effort to prevent the deportations of illegal aliens. Trump deployed troops to allow ICE to operate.

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The new book “Original Sin” from Jake Tapper & Alex Thompson recounts the effort to cover up Biden’s cognitive decline ahead of the election. The authors point to many guilty parties.

The one glaring omission? Their colleagues in the corporate press. Follow along ⤵️ There are numerous dramatic reveals. The Biden team considered condoning him to a wheelchair? Maybe in his fog he forgot about the border?

But as I worked on a review for @commonplc, the one thought that I kept coming back to was that you can’t tell this story without the press.

🧵THREAD🧵

Biden’s cancer diagnosis is a tragedy I know first-hand.

But our sympathy can’t silence questions about Biden’s cognitive decline, clarified just days ago by the Hur tape.

The media tried to bury the story then. They’re trying again now.

I’ve got the receipts. ⤵️ When the report first came out in 2024, outlets rushed to demean Hur, accusing him of serving as a Republican hatchet man.

Just look at this take from @USATODAY, who assembled sympathetic voices to make the case that Hur “crossed the line.” They found an expert to call it a “disgrace” and then featured the obviously unbiased Eric Holder to lead a section titled “Way too many gratuitous remarks.”

The audio makes clear that Hur, if anything, played down how alarming the claims were.

It should go without saying, but the media cultivating this type of baseless hysteria about an admin for partisan reasons is much more of a threat to the underpinnings of our democracy than anything Trump has actually done.

Quick 🧵⤵️ A couple quotes:

“If you think that there’s this thing out there called America, and it’s exceptional, that means you don’t have to do anything” to stop fascism.

What? What does that even mean??

That if you, like millions of Americans!, believe in American exceptionalism…you’re a fascist?

Really?

Wow what a potentially valuable insight worth sharing with the American people when it mattered rather than saving for your book!

https://twitter.com/axios/status/1922236115815215108

This conversation started in June *2023* so if you believe the media wasn’t aware of it before the election I have a bridge to sell you.

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Many in the media are trying to claim that the press was merely duped by Biden’s White House about the former president’s cognitive decline.

That simply isn’t true. The media actively took part in the coverup.

Don’t let them forget. I’ve got screenshots. ⤵️ I’ve done a number of threads on this but putting some of the most egregious stuff in one place.

Perhaps the most damming: Two weeks before the debate made Biden’s cognitive decline inescapable, @washingtonpost gave “Four Pinocchio’s” to allegedly edited videos showing Biden clearly displaying cognitive problems, dismissing them as “pernicious” efforts “to reinforce an existing stereotype” while quoting the White House to say the videos were “cheap fakes” — all to defend Biden against criticisms about his age and well-being.

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I’m not sure people realize just how egregious some of NPR’s “journalism” has been. Amid the debate about defunding the network, I wanted to walk down memory lane to revisit some of its worst coverage.

There’s a lot. ⤵️ First, perhaps the most egregious display of activist journalism: their response to the Hunter Biden laptop story of corruption involving a major party candidate on the eve of the election.

Not only did @NPR not cover it, they bragged about refusing to do so.

When it’s a D // When it’s an R
Oh there are a lot of these.

🧵Thread🧵

If you missed Trump’s address to Congress last night, I wouldn’t rely on media stories to explain it.

Rather than report on a speech viewers found “inspiring,” the corporate press played PR for Democrats.

Wanna know why trust in the press is underwater? Look. ⤵️ A @CBSNews poll of viewers found “A large majority of viewers approve” of Trump’s message, overwhelmingly describing it as “inspiring,” rather than “divisive.”

The speech was certainly partisan - and viewers skewed right.

But the press’s own view appears to slant their takes.

Having worked on the Hill I get the ubiquity of Politico Pro and its cost.

But I think it takes an enormous suspension of disbelief to call it a conspiracy theory to look askance at the millions of dollars the Biden admin paid the paper that ran this hatchet job on his opponent.
Which, to be clear, is exactly what outlets like @CNN are doing.

Quick 🧵 revisiting corporate media claims on the Covid lab leak theory then (a “conspiracy theory,” “misinformation,” etc.) vs. now (“okay the CIA even admits it”).

@nytimes then // @nytimes now
@washingtonpost then // now

Okay quick 🧵 on the bogus claims that ICE went into a school in Chicago to deport students. Starting with @GovPritzker

More ⤵️ @RepMikeQuigley why are you promoting misinformation?

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Trump’s return to the Oval Office has me reflecting on some of the worst “journalism” during his first term.

Of that long list, one in particular jumps out: the corporate press hype around the Steele dossier.

Do you *really* remember how bad it was? Follow along. ⤵️ Before I dive in, would really encourage you to read my full piece at @Holden_Court, because there’s too much to fit in a thread.

That said, surely you remember the dossier, a bunch of dramatic claims about Trump that even @nytimes now calls “discredited” open.substack.com/pub/drewholden…

🧵Thread🧵

Do you remember the media meltdown over Trump’s pardons? As Biden hands out decades-long passes to his family and friends, that concern is nowhere to be seen.

Biden no doubt wants you to forget this outrage in the glow of the inaugural.

Don’t. Screenshots help. ⤵️ When Trump announced pardons late in his first term, @nytimes said it “showed his willingness to use his power aggressively on behalf of loyalists” to “override courts, juries and prosecutors to apply his own standard of justice for his allies.”