Tag: mainstream media

Election Interference Litigation: Trump’s Case Against the Des Moines Register and Pollster Moves Forward

Back in 2018, I launched a podcast very loosely tied to what I’ve done for a living for many years, and so I called it “Shaping Opinion.” The very first topic I sought to cover was how political polls are used to shape public opinion and influence the vote. 

Needless to say, I didn’t get any takers who were willing to put themselves out there on this issue, and not just in that first year. This has always been one of those topics I’ve been ready to seize on if any new studies or indisputable proof would come up that would give me a chance to dig in. But no matter who I approached, people got awful shy on this one, especially after the presidential race of 2020. 

Of course, this is one of those topics where you can trust your own eyes and ears, and your powers of observation over time. In every presidential election cycle, Democrats are over-sampled and Republicans are not. Pollsters say there are reasons for this, but they never tell the full truth. 

You can count on public polls telling you early and often that the Democrat candidate is dominating. At some point around the conventions, polls will say each candidate saw a “post-convention bounce,” but the Republican candidate’s bump is always temporary and fleeting. The Democrat candidate’s bounce is always framed as the start of the home-stretch run where he or she is a likely winner. 

This is to condition the voters into assuming the Democrat will win. Social psychologists often say that most people like a winner, so for many, once they have a sense from the polls who the likely winner will be, that’s who they decide to vote for. 

Anyone with common sense who has seen this pattern over at least three election cycles can detect for themselves that polls are commonly used to shape opinion, not reflect it. 

So last year, when a well-respected pollster from Iowa named J. Ann Selzer published her final numbers for “The Iowa Poll” three days before election day, many of us were extremely curious. She released what was the final Des Moines Register presidential election poll, which had Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump by three points. 

Fox News called this a “shock poll” that “showed a seven-point shift from Trump to Harris from September, when he had a four-point lead over the vice president in the same poll.” 

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WSJ: Trump Offered to Build White House Ballroom for Obama in 2010

President Donald Trump offered to build a White House ballroom for President Barack Obama in 2010 — but the Obama administration never took up his offer, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The Journal reported:

For at least 15 years, Trump had tried and failed to build a grand ballroom at the White House that could host extravagant dinners for world leaders, lawmakers and celebrities. In early 2010, President Barack Obama’s top strategist David Axelrod got a call from Trump, then a real-estate developer and reality television star. They were connected via MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski, who had closer ties with Trump at the time.

“He said, ‘You have these state dinners in sh—y little tents,” Axelrod recalled in an interview. “He said, ‘I build ballrooms. I build the most beautiful ballrooms in the world. You can come to Florida and see for yourself.’ ”

Trump offered to build a modular ballroom at the White House that could be deconstructed. “I was thinking, we’re in the middle of a recession, I’m not sure about this,” Axelrod said. Axelrod suggested that Trump get in touch with Obama’s social secretary about the ballroom. They didn’t connect.

The Journal noted that Trump had approached the ballroom the way he had approached other building projects in the past — discovering how to control the regulatory process, or finding loopholes, to allow construction.

The ballroom is being built with funding from private donors, with costs reaching an estimated $350 million.

The Washington Post editorial page defended Trump’s ballroom project, noting that even Obama and Biden administration alimni had admitted the need for an indoor space — as opposed to the current arrangement, which forces esteemed guests to walk across the grass and to use portable toilets outdoors at large gatherings.

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‘Science Is on Our Side’: Critics Fire Back at AP Report on ‘Wave of Anti-Science Bills’

The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement and allied organizations are supporting “a wave of anti-science bills” in state legislatures across the U.S. — and some of the organizations may be profiting from their MAHA advocacy, The Associated Press reported.

During the current legislative session, lawmakers have introduced more than 420 bills that “strip away public health protections,” including measures that target vaccines, milk safety and fluoride, according to the AP’s four reports, published Monday.

The bills, which the AP said stem from “conspiracy-driven ideas,” are supported by Trump administration officials, including U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom the AP accused of “elevating anti-science ideas nationally.”

Mary Holland, CEO of Children’s Health Defense (CHD), told The Defender that the AP’s characterization of these bills as “anti-science” is irresponsible. She said:

“AP irresponsibly characterizes anything that does not track the ‘scientific consensus’ as ‘anti-science.’ Science only develops by challenging consensus and dogma and marshalling empirical evidence to support the claims.

“AP parrots corporate science as if it were true, without checking or comparing the evidence of new claims against those of the so-called consensus. AP has devolved into pure propaganda.”

The AP said several organizations “connected to Kennedy,” including CHD, support these state-level legislative efforts. State legislatures have enacted or adopted about 30 of the bills in 12 states.

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Trump Fights Back — Seeks to Proceed with $10 BILLION Lawsuit Against Wall Street Journal Over Epstein ‘Birthday Book’ Hit Piece

President Donald J. Trump is fighting to move forward with his massive $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, and News Corp, accusing them of launching a “deliberate smear campaign” intended to destroy his reputation.

According to ABC News, Trump’s legal team filed a motion late Monday night urging a Florida federal judge to deny the Journal’s request for dismissal, arguing that the outlet’s July article, which tied Trump to a bawdy letter allegedly penned in Jeffrey Epstein’s so-called “birthday book,” was “malicious, defamatory, and politically motivated.”

In their latest filing, Trump’s attorneys blasted the Journal:

“Defendants did not publish the article on the front page of The Wall Street Journal based on a mere harmless joke between friends. Indeed, such an assertion strains credulity beyond repair. The article, and the surrounding media around it, were all a deliberate smear campaign designed to damage President Trump’s reputation.”

Trump’s lawyers are now pushing for oral arguments to expose a coordinated media effort to smear the president.

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Even CNN Is Calling Out Dems Over This Lie About Trump’s White House Project

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and a host of Democrats fell for this lie. No, the East Wing project at the White House isn’t the president’s main priority. Trump departed for his Asia tour last night. Schumer commented on a clip of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s answer about this renovation, but it was taken out of context. Schumer took the bait and got taken behind the barn for it. Now, even CNN is calling them out.

A reporter asked press secretary Karoline Leavitt at a Thursday briefing: “In addition to the ballroom and the Rose Garden patio, is the president looking at any other renovations or significant kind of projects here at the White House?” 

Leavitt responded: “Not to my knowledge, no. But he’s a builder at heart, clearly. And so his heart and his mind is always churning about how to improve things here on the White House grounds. But at this moment in time, of course, the ballroom is really the president’s main priority.” 

So Leavitt was clearly referring to the planned new ballroom as Trump’s main priority for White House renovations. But on social media, various Democratic members of Congress have cut out the first part of the exchange to make it sound like she was saying the ballroom was Trump’s overall main priority. 

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CNN’s Scott Jennings TORCHES Hypocrite Democrats — Exposes Radical Left’s Love Affair with a Candidate Sporting an ACTUAL Nazi Tattoo While Smearing Trump as “Hitler”

Scott Jennings absolutely eviscerated the Democrat Party on CNN, laying bare their shameless hypocrisy on everything from Nazi smears to their embrace of far-left radicals.

For years, Democrats and their MSM lapdogs have hurled “Nazi” accusations at President Trump, Elon Musk, and anyone who dares challenge their radical agenda. They’ve even fabricated lies about Pete Hegseth having Nazi tattoos.

Jennings took to X to drop this truth bomb:

“Dem after Dem called Trump, Elon, etc. Nazis. They accused Hegseth of Nazi tattoos (FALSE). And now? The most popular Dem Senate candidate in AMERICA has actual Nazi tattoos & the full backing of the radical Sanders wing of the Democratic Party. OWN IT.”

Platner, a 41-year-old Marine veteran turned radical leftist, has a chest tattoo resembling the infamous SS Totenkopf skull and crossbones, a symbol straight out of Hitler’s playbook.

He claims he got it on a drunken liberty stint in Croatia and had no idea it screamed “Nazi,” but CNN’s KFile dug up deleted Reddit posts from 2019 where Platner discussed the very same symbol and its Nazi ties.

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They’re Coming For Your Wood-Burning Stove… Again

The weather is getting colder, and that means getting back to anti-wood-burning propaganda.

Did you know a wood burner can kill you? They pollute more than cars and cause cancer, “similar to cigarette smoke,” and so on.

Jeremy Vine is asking if it’s time to ban them.

This isn’t new – for want of a better word – “information”. We covered this last Christmas. Then over the summer, it was folded in with a barrage of “indoor air quality” fear-mongering, only to re-emerge now that the days are getting shorter again.

Sort of like reverse-hibernation.

A trendy wood burning stove almost killed me…they need to be banned before they do anymore damage

…screams the Daily Mail.

I like the word “trendy” — they keep using it — it’s so shamelessly manipulative, painting the humble stove as some pretentious luxury accessory, rather than the basic means of heating your home for literal millennia.

Anyway, the crux of the story is that this lady – Lizzie – had a severe asthma attack, and she “believes” it was linked to wood-burning stoves.

So they should be banned. Or something.

Then they quote a doctor:

‘This is why we want the government to launch a public awareness campaign on the health impacts and sources of pollution to empower the public to make cleaner choices and protect lung health, and other people like Lizzie.’

Then come the graphs. It’s all very predictable.

The Telegraph, more refined and less hysterical than the Daily Mail (which admittedly isn’t saying much) goes with…

Wood burners are bad for you. Here’s why you didn’t notice.

Detailing how new research has shown that wood burners are really terrible for everyone who uses them, but we just never noticed before.

Why didn’t we notice?

Oh, because the people who use them are “mostly” otherwise healthy and wealthy so the data was disguised by demographics.

Now, you might think that “research” which concludes “wood burning might make you sick, but being poor, eating badly or smoking are worse” is a shoe-in for the Well Duh! Prize at the annual Waste of Time Awards, but you’re wrong. It’s very serious.

Anyway, here’s their version of the doctor quote:

“It would be good to see increased awareness on the impact of wood burners, with clearer information and guidance from the Government on the health impact, as well as increased regulation around domestic wood-burning.”

No graphs this time, which is nice. But notice, like the Daily Mail article, the repeated association of wood burning with the upper class. It’s a luxury, not a right. That’s the message. The “expert” in the Telegraph even says, “primarily the reason for having a wood burner is the aesthetic of it.”

That’s a common sentiment, always presented without evidence.

That’s something I still find hilarious about the press — perhaps the British press in particular. These are identical stories, just in a house style. It’s like AI image filters, where you upload a photo of yourself and ask, “Show me this image as if it were painted by Van Gogh.” Or Rembrandt. Or Picasso.

“Tell me burning wood causes cancer in the style of the Guardian”. Or the Mirror. Or The Sun.

The aesthetic changes, the message does not.

And, of course, it’s not just the UK. When is it ever?

The devolved Scottish Parliament has already banned wood burners in newly built homes, with some local councils banning the installation of wood-burners in their council houses.

The anti-stove agenda clearly summers in Australia, because back in July, ABC were reporting on “the silent killer” of wood smoke, and how experts were calling for bans.

In New Zealand, government-commissioned research is blaming not just wood-burning stoves, but open fires, gas heaters and gas ovens for thousands of deaths per year.

In Canada, British Columbia is enforcing a registry for those who want to burn solid fuel domestically.

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ABC News Selectively Leaks Portions of Memo Authored by Fired Prosecutor to Help Discredit Indictment Against Letitia James

Deep State prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia are attacking US Attorney Lindsey Halligan with leaks after she successfully returned an indictment against Letitia James.

ABC News selectively leaked a memo authored by a fired prosecutor to try to discredit the indictment against Letitia James.

New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia earlier this month.

According to the DOJ, Letitia James was charged with two crimes: Bank Fraud under 18 U.S.C. Section 1344 and False Statements to a Financial Institution under 18 U.S.C. Section 1014.

“If convicted, Letitia James faces penalties including up to 30 years in prison per count, up to a $1 million fine on each count, and forfeiture,” the DOJ said.

The charges are related to a mortgage loan on a property James owns in Norfolk, Virginia, referred to as “the Perrone Property.”

According to the indictment reviewed by The Gateway Pundit, James was to use the property as her secondary residence and prohibited its use as a timesharing or other shared ownership arrangement or agreement that requires her either to rent the property or give any other person any control over the occupancy or use of the property.

Letitia James treated her Perrone property like an investment property on her Schedule E form and paid taxes on the rental income, further contradicting her claims of secondary residence.

ABC News obtained a memo authored by EDVA senior prosecutor Elizabeth Yusi. Interim US Attorney Lindsey Halligan fired Yusi last week.

According to portions of the memo leaked to ABC News, the Deep State prosecutors who refused to indict Letitia James claim the evidence they found undercuts Lindsey Halligan’s case.

The prosecutors gave their findings to US Attorney Erik Siebert before he was fired by President Trump.

ABC News reported that the rental income on James’ tax return is not in the “thousands” like the indictment alleged.

The leaked memo alleges that Letitia James did not collect rent from her niece.

“James purchased the home in Norfolk, Virginia, for her great-niece in 2020 for $137,000 and immediately allowed her and her children to begin living in the house rent-free. Prosecutors met with James’ niece, who stated that she had never signed a lease, had never paid rent for the home, and that James had often sent her money to cover some of the expenses, the memo concluded, according to sources familiar with its contents,” ABC News reported.

“While the indictment alleges that James made “thousand(s)” from rental income, sources tell ABC News that prosecutors found no record of James collecting rent from her niece beyond $1,350 that James reported on her 2020 tax return, which was said to cover the cost of utilities, according to sources familiar with the investigation,” ABC News reported.

“As of last month, investigators had met with ten witnesses who offered conflicting accounts about whether James’ actions constituted fraud or the degree to which she profited from her actions, the sources said,” the outlet reported.

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NBC Is Helping Run Anti-ICE Ops For Dems

NBC “Propaganda Press” News has an exclusive, and it sent a press release about it to other press so all press can report that a handful of Democrat senators have written a letter. Sure, senators write strongly worded letters all the time — and often they result in no action — but NBC is marketing this letter as a big deal, doing its part to spread Democrat propaganda.  

The senators sent the letter — “first provided to NBC News,” according to the press release — to Education Secretary Linda McMahon, “demanding that she step in and ask the Department of Homeland Security to curb its operations around schools.”

It is a classic “do it for the children” ploy.

In a nutshell, the letter, which NBC does not provide a link to, asks the Department of Education to require ICE operations to stay 1,000 feet away from school — that is, nearly three football fields.

Never mind that ICE is in the midst of the messy work of removing the many drug dealers, murderers, and pedophiles the Biden administration allowed into the country, as The Federalist’s M.D. Kittle reported. Democrat letter writers want to slow or stop the progress President Donald Trump’s administration is making in removing these criminals from the streets — for the children.   

“Federal agents continue to use unwarranted, excessive levels of force around Chicago, demonstrating an alarming lack of care or regard for the health and wellbeing of children, particularly by conducting unfocused, inflammatory operations within close proximity of school grounds,” the senators wrote in the letter, according to NBC’s press release. “We demand you pressure your colleague, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, to reinstate restrictions on Federal immigration enforcement operations in and around places of education.”

As NBC reported, the senators asserted that “if society can agree that alcohol, tobacco and drugs should be kept at least 1,000 feet away from our schools, surely we can agree that tear gas — a chemical weapon which causes burning, pain, skin inflammation and respiratory distress — and other violent DHS tools and tactics also belong on that list.”

This is not a fair argument. While it would be illegal to provide a child with alcohol, tobacco, or drugs, it is not illegal for police to enforce the law by arresting someone for doing these things in a school zone — or for breaking other laws. This request is trying to stop law enforcement from doing its job.  

If ICE must deploy tear gas near a school, cutting recess short is an option. NBC reported that a Chicago school had to move children inside recently after tear gas allegedly drifted onto the playground. It is a temporary nuisance for students, unless teachers make it something more. Inside, children were ”fearful” after the incident, NBC’s press release said.

But there is something more frightening than tear gas drifting onto the playground: being raped, robbed, or assaulted on the walk home from school by a violent criminal who illegally entered the country. Teachers should have used this moment to talk about the consequences people face when they don’t follow the rules. Notably, Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, told NBC that law enforcement used tear gas “because of violent rioters.”

The letter also apparently details an incident when federal agents allegedly “forcefully dragged two women out of a car in front of a school on the West Side of Chicago, violently detaining them without presenting a warrant, as children and parents watched on in horror.” McLaughlin told NBC that the women “were driving recklessly, including weaving between lanes and putting other motorists at risk. Following the driver abruptly stopping in the middle of traffic near a school, law enforcement approached the vehicle. The occupants refused to exit the vehicle and follow law enforcement commands.” (Another incident worth discussing with children in relation to the consequences of not following the rules).

The letter was signed by Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.; Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md.; Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.; Jacky Rosen, D-Nev.; Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; Cory Booker, D-N.J.; Andy Kim, D-N.J.; and Ed Markey, D-Mass. And other propaganda media quickly repeated the story, just as NBC wrote it, crediting NBC for the information. That is how propaganda spreads, like nitrates on the cool, autumn soil (that is, like crap on dirt, dear citified reader.)

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Pentagon Creates New Legion of PR Toadies

When the Pentagon announced that reporters would only be credentialed if they pledged not to report on documents not expressly released by official press handlers, free press advocates, including FAIR (9/23/25), denounced the directive as an assault on the First Amendment.

The impact of this rule cannot be understated—any reporter agreeing to such terms is essentially a deputized public relations lackey.

Many journalists, thankfully, displayed solidarity with each other and the idea of a free press when they resisted the state’s new censorship efforts. “Dozens of reporters turned in access badges and exited the Pentagon…rather than agree to government-imposed restrictions on their work,” reported the AP (10/15/25).

CNN’s Brian Stelter (10/15/25) reported:

A flyer with the words “journalism is not a crime” appeared Tuesday on the wall outside the “Correspondents’ Corridor” where journalists operate at the Pentagon. It was a silent protest of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s new policy that severely restricts press access.

The policy criminalizes routine reporting, according to media lawyers and advocates, so news outlets are refusing to abide by it. Instead, they are giving up their access to the building, while vowing to continue thoroughly covering Hegseth and the military from outside the Pentagon’s five walls.

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