Transcript of Fox Struggles to Spin Trump's Behavior as GOP Faces Election Crisis

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Episode summary

Ben Meiselas, host of The MeidasTouch Podcast, argues that Fox News is losing control of its coverage as Donald Trump's behavior and internal Republican fights create a crisis ahead of the midterm elections. He plays clips from Fox segments and guests, including Mark Levin, Ashley Hinson and Caroline Levitt, and criticizes what he calls distraction stories about Sydney Sweeney, Sophie Cunningham and a paper straw study.

He also disputes Fox's claims about gas and diesel prices and describes the network's coverage as a brainwashing tactic, a characterization that reflects his own opinion. Listeners get his framing of how the network mixes culture war stories with political messaging.

In this episode Ben Meiselas

This episode's transcript on Fox News's coverage of Trump and the GOP midterm crisis was made with the tool HappyScribe built to transcribe audio to text.

00:00:00

State regime media, which calls itself Fox News, is in panic mode as we are just days away from the midterm elections. They are having segments like this where their guest says, look, Donald Trump's got the rizz. You got the rizz when you talk about— well, I'll just play the clip for you. Let's play it.

00:00:18

It's amazing though that they look, they just won't let it go. You can't have any fun. Oh, the president says something, everything he says is serious. It's one of those things where you're like, Come on.

00:00:28

Well, one thing President Trump and I can agree on, we can both appreciate a good male physique, okay? A posterior, derriere, a tuchus, whatever you want to call it. One thing I'll say about President Trump, he is a consummate entertainer. The man has charisma. He has rizz, as the kids would say. He knows how to garner attention. And let's be honest, I'm friends with a lot of these Republican candidates. I've known them for years. They don't have the same charisma and star power that President Trump has to drive energy around the midterms. They should be thanking him for being out there on the campaign trail.

00:00:59

The hell is going on there? Then you have Mark Levin. Mark Levin says Dr. Abdul El-Sayyed, just the venom out of this Mark Levin's mouth. What a disgusting, vile thing this Mark Levin is, huh? Here, play this clip.

00:01:15

And he wants to be a senator. He shouldn't even be able to tour the United States Senate. This guy, let me be clear, is an enemy of the United States. An enemy of the United States in every respect.

00:01:28

Then state regime media Fox needs, of course, their distraction. So who do they use? Sydney Sweeney. They're always obsessed with like Sydney Sweeney and Sophie Cunningham for all of their culture war stories. And they'll like do a story on Sydney Sweeney. They're like, what, you don't think she's hot? Democrats don't think she's hot? What, you don't like women? What, what, you don't like women? Like, what are you talking— what are you even talking about? What's this segment even about? Kevin McCallister meets Sydney Sweeney. The Actress recreates Macaulay Culkin's iconic Home Alone aftershave scream in a playful new ad for her lingerie brand before bringing several— what are you even talking about? Why is this a main story that you were covering yesterday? We have gas and diesel prices record highs. We're in a catastrophic never-ending war in Iran, which apparently is about to be escalated, potentially leading to World War III. Electricity prices are up to record highs. People can't afford groceries right now. And this is the story you're running. Oh, and then this story, Sophie Cunningham. Sophie Cunningham says the FBI— yes, Kash Patel's FBI— is keeping tabs on roughly 20 people because of safety concerns involving her.

00:02:45

And that's just for one WNBA player. The India— the Indiana Fever guard made the startling claim during an appearance on the Theo Von podcast. This is a major state regime media Fox show. You may be saying, Ben, why do they come cover this because they want to distract for the same reason that Donald Trump keeps talking about men's asses all of the time and cognitive exams. I mean, he's actually a deranged psychotic human being, but there's also an aspect of they just want to distract you with all of these things and do weird culture wars while the country is literally falling apart because Trump destroyed it. Then they got to bring on their propagandists and they, they pace this throughout the day. You know, they'll like do some rage. And they'll do some like oversexual stuff. Then they'll bring in like Caroline Levitt to then spew the propaganda. This is all brainwashing techniques that state regime media does to manipulate its office. It's all part of a brainwashing op every damn morning. So then they bring in Caroline Levitt and she's like, look, I would just hear, you know, like just the mouth moving. And it's all lies coming out of her mouth.

00:03:58

It's like, look at what the president has done for our energy industry. He's bringing down the price of gas. gasoline and diesel. In what world is he bringing down the price of gasoline and diesel? In what world is that happening? Gas and diesel are at record highs from when Biden left office to now. It's substantially higher. The average price of gas and diesel under Donald Trump is now higher than the average price under former President Biden. And Donald Trump's only been president for 2 years, and that was 4 years over there. And we only expect it to go much higher because the price per barrel of oil is sky high right now. This catastrophic war is not ending. And if there is this escalation, which we all expect there's going to be right after this midterms, that Trump's gonna like launch this catastrophic attack that's gonna backfire on the United States, then gas is gonna hit like $200 a barrel. By the way, if you look at the spot price of oil right now, if you look at the spot price, like the actual dated Brent, dated WTI, meaning like if you had to buy it today, not the futures price is what we often talk about, it's like $150, $160 a barrel.

00:05:08

And by the way, look at the crack spreads also, the difference or delta between the price of oil and the refined product. And take a look at what's happening in our refineries right now. Anyway, here's Caroline Levitt just lying, spewing the stupidest lies, like the dumbest lies too. Oh yes, Caroline, we believe you. Yes, just because you're saying words. No, we know you're a freaking liar. We know you're protecting the Epstein class. We know that all this regime does is cover up child sex trafficking for the Epstein class and this globalist authoritarian network. Here, play this clip.

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00:05:40

purchases again because the president asked directly. If you also look at what the president has done for our energy industry, he is bringing down the price of gasoline and diesel. Of course, he's been very upfront with voters in Iowa and all across the country about what the war in Iran is doing. It's a short-term consequence, but overall his energy policy will bring gas prices and diesel costs down again. If you look at it in contrast to what the Democrats want to do, they want to completely shut down and phase out our country from fossil fuels, which will jack up energy costs, which will not be good for anyone in rural America. or anywhere in America. So that's why the president is going to both Iowa and Kansas on Sunday. He's hosting dozens of tele-rallies throughout the weekend. He's in Florida tonight. He's been crisscrossing the country as he pledged to do, to remind common sense Americans of the contrast between his economic agenda, his law and order agenda, with the extreme liberal policies of the Democrats who won't make anything better. What they want to do will make our country far worse.

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00:07:42

And they bring back Mark Levin. Mark Levin, the Republican Party doesn't allow bigots and racists. You are, you are a bigot in my opinion. You are one of the worst people that are out there. The whole, the whole network, that's all they do here. Play this clip.

00:07:58

They have no place in the Republican Party. The Republican Party doesn't have this fight going on. The Republican Party doesn't have primaries like this. We don't allow bigots and racists and anti-Semites And American haters in our party.

00:08:12

Then state regime media brings in Ashley Hinson, who's running for the Senate seat in Iowa. They give her a bunch of softballs. So your opponent's trying to win over people who are dissatisfied with high prices. How do you counter that argument, Ashley? And she goes, well, they're the arsonists. I don't trust the arsonists to put out the fire. You're the arsonist. The MAGA Republicans are— you are literally the arsonist. You have lit this country on fire in a bad way. And now you're saying you're the ones who can fix it. But here's what she says. Play this clip.

00:08:47

Your opponent, State Rep Josh Turck, is trying to win over people who are dissatisfied with high prices right now. He blames Republicans and the Trump administration for that. How do you counter that argument?

00:08:57

Well, I don't trust the arsonists to put out the fire. You look at the last 4 years under President Biden, and every Democrat voted against the tax relief plan that we had for the American people.

00:09:07

Then they bring in this guy, Tyrus. I don't even know who is this guy. They bring in this guy Tyrus to say basically that Dr. Abdul El-Sayed should just— I don't even know what he's saying. They're just spreading lies that Dr. Abdul El-Sayed doesn't want to support Black people. I don't even understand. What are they even talking about? Play this clip.

00:09:26

If you don't have a relationship with Black people, it's cool. Just own it. Because whoever's on his team going, we got to get around Black people. What do they do? I think they hang out at barbershops. Let's go to a barbershop. And then he does that, and then someone's gonna be like, you know, they like basketball, so they're gonna show up at a basketball game. Like, bruh, you're not— you don't have the connection there. Just say, look, I don't know you guys, but I want to work with you guys. We'll go a lot further than slowing down everyone's day at the barbershop. You ain't even getting lined up. Pathetic.

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00:09:55

And then state regime media goes right back to Holy Dog. This was a segment they were running, Holy Dog. The priest has a 4-legged companion who refuses to miss a moment of Mass. Nina, a dog in Argentina, joins Father German Alassia at the church. What are we even talking about here? Why is this a story? What are we saying here? Here, play this clip. Then they do this propaganda piece for Donald Trump. This is a big victory, they say, for Donald Trump. The White House and President Trump are taking a major victory lap for a new study claiming paper straws are worse for the environment than their plastic counterparts. Major victory lap for the Trump regime, folks. A new study claims that paper straws are worse for the environment than their plastic counterparts. We went from Donald Trump promising he would end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours after the 2024 election, that there would be no more never-ending wars, that gas prices would be $2 a gallon, that he would release the Epstein files, that electricity prices would be cut in half. But folks, the big celebration that Fox is pushing before the midterms, a Major victory lap.

00:11:28

A random study is claiming that paper straws, way worse, way worse for the environment than plastic counterparts. Here, play this clip.

00:11:37

I do think we have bigger problems than plastic straws. They want to ban straws. Has anybody ever tried those paper straws? They're not working too good. It disintegrates as you drink it. If you have a nice tie like this tie, this would have no chance. These things don't work. I've had them many times, and on occasion they break, they explode. If something's hot, they don't last very long, like a matter of minutes, sometimes a matter of seconds. It's a ridiculous situation. So we're going back to plastic straws. I think it's okay.

00:12:12

And then state regime media has to finish their day of news program by saying, Miss Rachel is calling a Florida youth soccer dispute racist. But police body cam footage tells a different story. The children's YouTube star says she's livid over claims that officers were called on a 3-year-old Black soccer prodigy because he was too good at the game. But footage obtained by OutKick shows a league official telling police that the boy's parents caused a disturbance after their son was held out to give other children more playing time. You see, just a culture war divide the country. Do you see how Fox though, very surgically, you see the stories they pick out to divide people, and then they sandwich that between their political content. And they're just, they're creating ways to, you know, tap into people's reptilian brains to just like piss them off and to, you know, create all of these thoughts, but to just make them angry. And then they slide in there, the Caroline Levin brainwash, right? They try to open up your mind. I mean, It's a doggy. Caroline Levin's coming on. Gas prices are actually much lower. Diesel prices are lower.

00:13:24

You've never felt better. You've never felt better. You know, you just repeat it over, right? Do you see the brainwashing? I just— I want to cue— there's actual brainwashing taking place, like hypnotic, like hypnosis. Not hypnotic. Hypnotic was a drink back in the day. Like hypnosis, like they're doing hypnosis, like a version of that, but it's actual brainwashing. So I want to cue you in on what they're doing. And these are tricks used by the global authoritarian network, by the way, as well. And we point this out in WTF America: The Way Out of This Hell, Back to Democracy. Get the hardcover, get the ebook. Currently number 2 on the New York Times bestseller list. Let's get it to number 1. But we talk about the global authoritarian media brainwashing tactics, how this global network does it, how they manipulate the algorithms, And, uh, all of these forces at play. Anyway, thanks so much. Appreciate you. Have a good one.

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Episode description

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Fox losing control on live TV as Trump throws the GOP into crisis before Election Day. Meiselas breaks down Fox’s increasingly absurd attempts to justify Trump’s strange behavior, distract viewers, and spin away the GOP’s mounting problems as panic sets in.

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