WEDNESDAY: Fascinating interview comes and goes!

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2026

Feeling a bit like John Book: Last evening, Anderson Cooper did a fascinating interview with Stella Carlson, the Minneapolis woman who recorded a deeply informative, close-up videotape of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti.

We thought the interview was fascinating in any number of ways. Depressingly, CNN seems to disagree. We're surprised by how little attention is being paid to the interview at CNN's various sites.

That said:

As broadcast, the interview ran just over 19 minutes. In fairness to CNN, you can watch the full interview here, with selected excerpts available. To read the CNN transcript, click this.

To our eye and ear, Carlson seemed more like an admirable, good and decent regular person, less like some sort of actual "activist." Her picture of the way ICE agents behave on the street was essentially subjective and unverifiable, but it seemed to create a picture of current life in Minneapolis which surpassed anything else we've read or seen.

In a similar way, also this:

Adam Serwer's up close and personal report for The Atlantic struck us as top notch. He was interacting more with people in and around Minneapolis who might be described as dedicated "activists." He too expanded our sense of life on the ground. The dual headline on his lengthy portrait says this:

Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong

The pushback against ICE exposed a series of mistaken assumptions.

For whatever reason, the Carlson interview and the Serwer essay struck us somewhat similarly. They each made us feel how little is being communicated by the endless reports in newspapers like the New York Times, or by the endless segments on cable news programs on CNN and MS NOW (horrible new name).

We feel a bit like the John Book character at the outset of Witness. To quote (in translation) from Plato's Seventh Letter, the Book character has begun to feel overwhelmed—dismayed—by "the wickedness of the times."

(Warning: "Of all the letters attributed to Plato, the Seventh Letter is widely considered the only one that might be authentic.")

Whatever! We haven't been able to find the translation of the Seventh Letter which we find most striking. This fragment does survive online and in our notes:

"When I saw all this, and other things as bad, I was disgusted and withdrew from the wickedness of the times."

So said Plato, in translation, if the document is authentic. He would have been speaking about the brief period of time when the so-called Thirty Tyrants came to power in Athens:

Thirty Tyrants

The Thirty Tyrants were an oligarchy that briefly ruled Athens from 404 BC to 403 BC. Installed into power by the Spartans after the Athenian surrender in the Peloponnesian War, the Thirty became known for their tyrannical rule, first being called "The Thirty Tyrants" by Polycrat. Although they maintained power for only eight months, their reign resulted in the killing of five percent of the Athenian population, the confiscation of citizens' property, and the exile of other democratic supporters.

[...]

The Thirty Tyrants' brief reign was characterized by violence and corruption. Historian Sian Lewis argues that the violence and brutality the Thirty carried out in Athens was necessary to transition Athens from a democracy to an oligarchy. However, the more violent the Thirty's regime became, the more opposition they faced.

The increased level of opposition ultimately led to the overthrow of the Thirty's regime by Thrasybulus' rebel forces. After the revolution, Athens needed to decide the best way to govern the liberated city-state and to reconcile the atrocities committed by the Thirty. It was decided to give amnesty to all of the members of the selected 3,000, except for the Thirty themselves, the Eleven (a group of prison magistrates appointed by lot who reported directly to the Thirty, and the ten who ruled in Piraeus (directly appointed by the Thirty).

And so on, at length, from there. That's the way it worked out back then. We may (or may not) be so lucky.

At present, it seems to us that the whole game turns on what President Trump may (or may not) decide to do at some point in the next three years (or in the next three days). All we can do is sit and wait. It seems to us that Red America has largely gone down a rabbit hole at the present time, and that Blue America may lack the skill and the self-awareness to find a way out of this dangerous mess—a dangerous mess in substantial part of our own Blue American making.

In the past week or so, we've found ourselves thinking again about the more interesting [INSERT TOPIC HERE]. We'll fill in the blank tomorrow.

In disgust, Plato withdrew from the wickedness of the times. Borrowing from the screenplay of Casablanca, John Book, by the end of Witness, had agreed to "return to the fight."

WITNESS: Bearing witness was simple as ringin' a bell!

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2026

Last night's attack on Omar: "Citizens with smartphones are supplementing journalists in gathering facts." 

So writes George Will in his newest column. Along the way, Will reports a fairly obvious fact:

Today, it is more than prudent to assume that everything ICE says, and everything the administration says in support of its deportation mania, is untrue until proved to be otherwise

It's hard to argue with that. At any rate, a new technology—that of the smartphone—is allowing us to witness things we never could have witnessed in even the recent past. 

In the 1985 film, Witness, a different technology served that purpose. We refer to the ringing of a bell. 

The ringing of a bell produced created a state of community witness! We'll let the leading authority on the film start to attempt to explain:

Witness (1985 film)

Witness is a 1985 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Peter Weir. Starring Harrison Ford, its plot focuses on a police detective protecting an Amish woman and her son, who becomes a target after he witnesses a brutal murder in a Philadelphia railroad station.

Filmed in 1984, Witness was released theatrically by Paramount Pictures in February 1985. The film received positive reviews upon release and became a sleeper hit... At the 58th Academy Awards, it earned eight nominations, including Best Picture.

[...]

Schaeffer, McFee and another corrupt cop arrive at the Lapp farm and take Rachel and Eli hostage... Schaeffer holds Rachel and Eli at gunpoint, but Samuel secretly comes back to ring the Lapp farm's bell. [The Ford character] confronts Schaeffer, who threatens to kill Rachel, but the bell has alerted and summoned all of the neighbors. With so many witnesses present, Schaeffer surrenders and is later arrested.

Let us expand upon that:

Ford is cast as John Book, a Philly police officer who discovers murderous corruption within that police department. Seeking to save his own life—but mainly fleeing "the wickedness of the times"—he goes into hiding with the Lapp family in Pennsylvania's Amish country, 

The corrupt cops discover where he is; they go to the Lapp farm to kill him. When the Lapp family bell is rung—in a no-telephone Amish culture, it's a signal of the need for aid—neighbors arrive from all around. 

In the face of so many witnesses, the last surviving corrupt policeman puts down his gun and surrenders.

Metaphorically, the film is a beautifully disguised metaphorical portrait of an attempt at "internal exile." The film ends with Book returning to the wider world, thereby walking away from a love affair with Rachel Lapp, as played by Kelly McGillis.

He has come to see that he can't live the rest of his life within this internal exile—within this avoidance of the need to confront the wickedness of the time. 

The love affair with the McGillis character encourages him to stay. But as in Casablanca, so too here. In the end, the Ford character, like Monsieur Rick, decides to "return to the fight."

We've often wondered why Witness isn't one of our three or four favorite films. We'll skip that question today. 

All in all, it may seem that it took an Aussie, the director Weir, to film this brilliant portrait of American dismay and despair in the face of the urban crime disasters taking form during that era. That said, the basic story idea, and the Oscar-winning screenplay, were developed by a series of Americans, by way of a Gunsmoke episode.

At any rate, the ringing of a bell called neighbors to come and bear life-saving witness. The situation may be a bit more fraught today.

Two of the three homicides in Minneapolis this year have been committed by the Border Patrol or by ICE! The blowing of whistles has been part of the call to bear witness there, but it's the smartphone which has let everyone across the globe take part in a new form of witness.

That has been especially true in the past five days.

Witness features a complex but hopeful ending, in which the act of witness subdues the immediate act of corruption. The power of smartphones notwithstanding, we can't necessarily picture a good way out of our current American mess.

Smartphones have let us witness recent actions—but are we prepared to bear witness? Last night, a type of physical attack was conducted against Rep. Ilhan Omar. We were struck by how little background information was provided by this news report in the New York Times:

Representative Ilhan Omar Is Attacked at Town Hall in Minneapolis

During a town hall with Representative Ilhan Omar in Minneapolis on Tuesday evening, a man rushed the lectern and appeared to spray her with a strong-smelling liquid before he was tackled by security.

The man, who had been seated directly in front of the lectern in the front row, suddenly jumped up as Ms. Omar was speaking and ran toward the podium. He used a syringe to spray her shirt with a substance that smelled strongly of vinegar. As he stumbled backward and pointed at her, a security officer tackled him to the ground, handcuffed him and removed him from the room.

Gasps were audible through the crowd, as well as cries of “Oh my God, oh my God.” 

And so on from there. 

Reasonably or otherwise, we were struck by the lack of background information in the Times report. Over at Mediaite, Michael Luciano reported the reaction by President Trump, and background was provided:

Trump Floats Conspiracy Theory After Man Shoots Liquid at Ilhan Omar: ‘She Probably Had Herself Sprayed’

President Donald Trump suggested that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) orchestrated the incident in which a man sprayed her with liquid on Tuesday night.

Omar held a town hall in Minneapolis, where she called for the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency has overseen a brutal crackdown by federal immigration agents in the city. As she spoke, a man approached the lectern and aimed a plastic-looking syringe at the congresswoman and squirted an unidentified substance at Omar.

[...]

About two hours later, Rachel Scott of ABC News said she had just spoken with Trump and asked him if he had seen the video of the incident.

“No. I don’t think about her. I think she’s a fraud. I really don’t think about that. She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her,” the president told Scott.

There the president went again! Later in Luciano's report, this background was provided:

The president has waged a long-running feud with Omar, who is from Somalia and has represented Minnesota’s 5th district since 2019. At a rally last year, Trump falsely claimed the lawmaker is “here illegally,” a charge that prompted the crowd to chant, “Send her back!”

Last week, the president called for Omar to be investigated for “political crimes.”

Trump has also called Omar “garbage” and said he does not want any Somalis in the U.S.

“They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country, I’ll be honest with you,” the president said in December. “Some will say that is not ‘politically correct.’” I don’t care. Their country is no good for a reason.”

For whatever reason, there he went again.

At this site, we have long assumed that the president is afflicted with some (deeply unfortunate) version of what used to be called "mental illness." We don't think that's going to change, and we don't think that news orgs like the Times are ever going to come to terms with the tragic but dangerous state of affairs which seems to be right there before them.

Back in December, the president described Minnesota's Somali American population as "garbage." All in all, major news orgs took that familiar behavior in stride.

The Times has refused to center the president's endless unusual conduct within a basic front-page news focus. Dating all the way back to the start of his four or five birther years, the editorial board has never had the courage to stand up and say something like this:

Whatever else may be true within our political world, the ongoing misconduct of this president is completely unacceptable.

Medical possibilities to the side, the Times has never been willing to do those things—to bear witness in those fairly obvious ways. Beyond that, the Times has never been willing to report and discuss the work which emerges from the Fox News Channel.

Over the weekend, a news report in the Times suggested the possibility that this very important American newspaper might be willing to exercise a new type of witness with respect to that "cable news" channel. As we noted yesterday, the news report started like this:

Most Fox News Reporting on Minneapolis Shooting Supports Official Version

On Sunday morning, reporters on many TV networks were poring over multiple videos of the shooting over the weekend of a protester in Minneapolis by immigration agents, trying to understand what happened from slow-mo footage and freeze-frame images.

But on Fox News, the nation’s top-rated cable news network, there was little of that kind of analysis. Instead, most of its hosts, reporters and guests appeared laser focused since the shooting late Saturday morning on supporting the Trump administration’s official narrative: that Alex Pretti, a 37-year old intensive care nurse, brought the violence upon himself.

“Only one person could have prevented this from happening and it’s Alex Pretti,” said Charlie Hurt, co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday morning. “He should have not been there.”

And so on from there. 

That's the way the report began. For once in its institutional life, the New York Times was bearing witness to what takes place, all day long and then all night, on that very powerful American "cable news" channel.

(Full disclosure: Some of what happens on Fox is more illuminating than the corresponding work on CNN or MS NOW.)

Coverage of the Fox News Channel is very badly needed. You don't see any such effort at the Times or at the Washington Post or at The Atlantic or at CNN or at MS NOW. 

We doubt that any such coverage will ever take a serious form at the New York Times—and if it does, we'll assume that it will be much too late to have a serious effect on the obvious, ongoing demise of the American nation.

Concerning the assault on Rep. Omar, let's be admirably frank:

President Trump has been begging for something like that. So has the Fox News Channel's gruesome Greg Gutfeld, along with the defectives with whom he surrounds himself on his nightly primetime program.

If the New York Times had been willing to report on Gutfeld down through the years, it would have had to come to terms with his endless claim about Rep. Omar. His endless claim is endlessly seconded by the wrestlers, chefs and former cheerleaders with whom he peoples his show.

The claim has been around for ten years. The truth of the claim has never been established, but people like President Trump and the acolyte Gutfeld never stop pimping it out.

To see the most recent fact-check by Snopes of this "rumor," you can just click here. To see the most recent pimping of this rumor by Gutfeld, you can click here, then you can click this, for the fun he had with this evergreen rumor on his January 15 program.

("It's like a three-legged stool of stool," the excrement-obsessed cable star said. "Nobody's refuting it," the defective star pitifully said.)

For the Times' original fact-check—all the way back in 2019!—you can just click here.

In fairness to the New York Times, it's hard to report, describe and evaluate the highly unusual types of behavior technological breakthrough has wrought:

We jumped from talk radio to cable news and then on to the internet. Every flyweight or stumblebum has his own podcast now. 

The most-watched American "cable news" show is driven by a pair of journalistic barbarians like Gutfeld and Jesse Watters. Almost surely, the high-falutin New York Times wouldn't know how to get its arms around the endless chaos there.

Borrowing from Huey Long, Every apparent defective a king! Mental disorder is always tragic, but in our brave new democratized world, it's also endlessly dangerous.

Blue Americans show bad judgment too, but the times, they're quite different now. We don't expect a positive change, and we'll let Chuck Berry explain how simple it was, long ago, before we made all the advances:

Back in those less complexified days, playing the guitar for Johnny B. Goode was as simple as ringin' a bell! Today, the beast is crawling across the land, and those of us who aren't incel-adjacent or semi-insane aren't smart enough, or honest enough, to come to terms with the beast's incessant sprawling misconduct.

Still to come this week: What we heard on Fox & Friends Weekend. 

Also, we'll revisit Kristi Noem's story.

TUESDAY: "Violent" and "crazy," Watters says!

TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2026

Things you hear at Fox: What sorts of things do citizens in Red America hear when they visit the Fox News Channel?

Below, we'll show you the latest from Jesse Watters. First, though, consider a news report from Fox News Digital, the online reporting site of Fox News.

In effect, we're now visiting the site of "The Fox News Times." Headline included, here's the start of the report in question:

DHS probes whether agents killed VA nurse following accidental discharge during Minneapolis ICE raid

The Department of Homeland Security is investigating whether U.S. Border Patrol agents thought they were being fired upon when one fatally shot Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street over the weekend. 

The New York Post reported that an accidental discharge of Pretti's Sig Sauer P320 pistol, which was being held by an agent after it was taken away from him, may have made authorities believe their lives were in danger.

Pretti, a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ICU nurse, who was legally permitted to carry the weapon, was fired upon around 10 times and died at the scene. 

Officials initially said Pretti was brandishing the weapon as federal officers were conducting immigration enforcement operations. 

"It was 100% an accidental discharge by the agent that relieved that person of their weapon. Because everyone’s guns were out, they think that there’s a shooting," one source told the Post. 

And so on from there.

For what it's worth, that report, which is sourced to the New York Post, may be fundamentally accurate. It may well be true! It may be true that the DHS really is "investigating" this highly implausible possible "explanation."

(To peruse the New York Post report, you can just click here.)

For the record, that would be an extremely MAGA-friendly "explanation." According to this alleged possibility, Pretti's gun discharged by accident, making the agents assailing Pretti believe they were being fired on. 

Offhand, this alleged explanation doesn't exactly seem to jibe with anything heard on the (many) videotapes of this fatal group-mugging event. But it's perfectly normal to see such material being floated by the New York Post and then by Fox News Digital, and it's easy to imagine the current DHS seeking a way to move forward with some such helpful claim.

Meanwhile, also this:

In yesterday morning's report, we recorded the latest error by Jesse Watters, as delivered on last Friday's edition of The Five. One day later, Pretti was fatally shot as he seemed to be wholly disabled.

As reported by Mediaite, Watters was now saying this on yesterday's edition of that high-profile show:

Jesse Watters Baselessly Claims Alex Pretti ‘Violently’ Obstructed Agents

Fox News host Jesse Watters claimed Monday without evidence that Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti “violently” obstructed federal agents before he was shot and killed.

On Monday’s edition of The Five, Watters began, “The guy who brings a loaded firearm, concealed, into a dangerous fugitive operation is crazy. You do not bring a loaded gun and start violently and physically resisting and obstructing a manhunt, okay?”

As of 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon, President Trump was walking back from the remarkable claims various high-end staffers had made about Pretti's motives and behavior during that fatal event. 

By way of contrast, Watters was still saying that Pretti had "violently and physically resist[ed] someone or something" that day, and had "obstructing a manhunt" before he was fatally shot.

Also, Pretti was "crazy" to have been carrying his firearm on that particular day.

There was more to Watters' oration yesterday. We'd say he was behind the curve in his presentation of this agitprop--behind the curve in what was, even for him, a highly unusual way.

(To our eye, Watters is cast as the Fox "silly boy." But he's usually "better" than this.)

We'd love to see the New York Times report what happens on major Fox News Channel programs. So far, everyone at the Times, major columnists included, has let the cup pass from his or her lips regarding that type of service.

The wider world needs to know what's said and done on Fox. To date, the Times has been ducking this badly needed type of service, along with every major org over here in our own Blue realm.

Sometimes, valid complaints are voiced on Fox. (It even happened in that first segment yesterday!) That should be reported too. We Blues need to hear about the (many) ways we ourselves have been badly wrong.

WITNESS: The New York Times takes a new approach!

TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2026

Reports what they're saying on Fox: To the naked eye of an unskilled observer watching via videotape, the latest fatal shooting—the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti—looks like nothing so much as an outtake from a Martin Scorsese crime film.

We're thinking of a film like Goodfellas, or of a scene from Casino. 

In the scenes we have in mind, Joe Pesci and Robert de Niro are whaling away at a helpless victim who is now down on the ground.  In the case of the fatal shooting of Pretti, something like half a dozen additional agents are whaling away at the victim.

The invention of the cell phone has allowed us the people to witness such public events. This morning, the New York Times has gone all in with respect to its reporting of this widely witnessed event.

The Times is treating this as the major event it surely is—and the paper isn't being kind to the current administration. In print editions, the headline in the upper-right hand corner of the front page offers this punishing overview:

Trump, Under Pressure, Retreats From Smears In Minneapolis Killing

That isn't a friendly headline. Three different reports about this matter appear today on that same front page. Online, these are the headlines which sit atop those three front-page reports:

A Crisis of Confidence for ICE and Border Patrol as Clashes Escalate

Crackdown Chief to Leave Minneapolis as White House Distances Trump From Uproar

Alex Pretti’s Friends and Family Denounce ‘Sickening Lies’ About His Life

The headlines don't just speak of "smears," they also speak of "sickening lies." Inside the paper, seven (7) additional reports concern this fatal shooting and what has followed. On pages A10 through A13, here are the headlines which sit atop four of those reports:

How the Trump Administration Rushed to Judgment in Minneapolis Shooting

Border Patrol Official Gregory Bovino Is Set to Leave Minnesota

They ‘Had Done Everything Right.’ ICE Detained Them Anyway.

Parts of Minneapolis Carry On, but Talk of Killings Is Everywhere

This isn't friendly coverage. Scanning those headlines, a reader might easily formulate this general picture of what happened in the wake of this latest "killing:"

The Trump administration rushed to judgment, issuing a set of smears ad "sickening lies"

Our own assessment would be this: 

Whatever else may turn out to be true, that overview won't be far from the truth. 

Indeed, as a simple matter of historical witness, news orgs should carefully assemble a catalogue of the inexcusable, crazy claims issued by Noem and Bovino and Miller and others in the immediate, split-second aftermath of this latest shooting. A careful record of this ludicrous conduct by major officials should be assembled and saved.

In various ways, the New York Times has already gone all in with respect to its coverage of this fatal event. That said: 

Late yesterday, we stumbled upon a news report which represents a whole new approach from this hugely important newspaper.

In all honesty, this new type of news report may come and go with zero follow-up. It may prove to be a harbinger of exactly nothing. The world may little know, nor long remember, the fact that it ever appeared.

For the record, it's hard to find this news report within the endless catacombs of this sprawling newspaper. Yesterday, we stumbled upon it only while googling some related topic. 

This news report is hard to find. That said, remarkably, the news report starts like this:

Most Fox News Reporting on Minneapolis Shooting Supports Official Version

On Sunday morning, reporters on many TV networks were poring over multiple videos of the shooting over the weekend of a protester in Minneapolis by immigration agents, trying to understand what happened from slow-mo footage and freeze-frame images.

But on Fox News, the nation’s top-rated cable news network, there was little of that kind of analysis. Instead, most of its hosts, reporters and guests appeared laser focused since the shooting late Saturday morning on supporting the Trump administration’s official narrative: that Alex Pretti, a 37-year old intensive care nurse, brought the violence upon himself.

“Only one person could have prevented this from happening and it’s Alex Pretti,” said Charlie Hurt, co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday morning. “He should have not been there.”

And so on from there, at relatively modest length. To his great credit, the New York Times' Ken Bensinger wrote this report—and some editor let him do it and put his report in print. 

That quoted statement by Charlie Hurt? It's part of what we were referring to in our own (extremely rare) Sunday morning report. In that report, we mentioned the striking coverage we had seen on Fox & Friends Weekend that very morning.

As always, there we sat, bearing witness, during Sunday morning's 6 o'clock hour. Later that morning, here's part of what we wrote:

There are many problems to be examined in the wake of the latest fatal shooting. For one example, you need to see the way the fatal shooting was described by all three co-hosts on this morning's Fox & Friends Weekend.

It was Charlie and Rachel and Griff oh my! The agitprop was general over the broadcast. The thumbs on the scale were endless.

That's the way their presentation had looked to us. Yesterday, in a buried report for the New York Times, Bensinger reported some of what the three co-hosts had said.

We've complained and complained and complained ad complained about the failure of the New York Times to present this type of reporting. The American discourse could end up being massively better if this hugely important American newspaper continues along this path.

We live in two Americas now—Red as well as Blue. Just a guess:

Most of us in Blue America have little idea what's being said, and what's being heard, over in Red America. Citizens of Red America are similarly under-informed.

As he continued, Bensinger reported some of what has been said on Fox about this latest fatal shooting—and by far, Fox is the most heavily watched of our three major "cable news" channels. 

In our view, some of what is said on Fox is clownish / inane / inexcusable. On the other hand, some of what is said over there may perhaps be more accurate than what we hear over here.

In our view, a great deal of what occurs on Fox—and especially on its most-watched shows—resembles a clownish parody of news reporting and analysis. That said, some of what occurs on Fox is very much worth considering—and where major claims on Fox are wrong, they should be publicly debunked.

(Do you know how to assess this report? We have no idea.)

Readers of the New York Times deserve to know what's being said in the other America. As Lincoln suggested, a major modern nation can't survive half Blue and half Red.

The Times should bear witness to what happens on Fox! More on this topic tomorrow.

Tomorrow: Here's what the three co-hosts said

MONDAY: The crazy culture of crazy misstatement!

MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2026

This is the culture we've chosen: In a colloquy for the New York Times, David French makes an accurate statement about certain kinds of legal liability:

‘Kristi Noem Needs to Go.’ Three Columnists on ICE in Minneapolis.

[...]

David French: We are witnessing the total breakdown of any meaningful system of accountability for federal officials. The combination of President Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons, his ongoing campaign of pardoning friends and allies, his politicized prosecutions and now his administration’s assurances that federal officers have immunity are creating a new legal reality in the United States. The national government is becoming functionally lawless, and the legal system is struggling to contain his corruption.

That assessment may be basically accurate. On the other hand, the sheer lunacy of the administration's reaction to the latest fatal shooting seems to have taken us to a societal breaking point.

Over the weekend, the sheer lunacy of instant statements by Noem and Bovino and Miller and Bessent seems to have been so undeniable that even a highly permissive society is no longer inclined to deny the obvious. 

At present, it looks like Noem is the figure who may be shown the door. But the culture of absurd statement was widespread within the administration this weekend, and it was so transparently ugly and inane that denial and avoidance have suddenly disappeared.

The culture of lunatic MAGA misstatement has suddenly been met with widespread disfavor. Let us say this about that:

The culture of lunatic TrumpWorld misstatement got its start with four years of birtherism performed by then-Citizen Trump on the Fox News Channel. That said, what's the most sacred crazy statement of them all? 

Everybody knows what it is! The president's defining lunacy goes exactly like this:

The 2020 presidential election was stolen. It was rigged!

He has said it and said it and said it and said it. Even more than five years later, he continues to say it with numbing regularity. 

He has never tried to provide a serious attempt at evidence in support of this poisonous claim. Also, you've never seen an American reporter ask him why he keeps saying this—and you've never seen a major news org announce, through its editorial policy or through the conduct of its news division, that this is a form of lunacy which simply cannot be tolerated for one freaking minute more.

No reporter has ever asked him in person. No news org has ever posed that obvious question through a written public transmission.

In that and in a hundred other ways, major members of the MAGA elite may have come to feel that the craziest attack on the opposition, or the craziest defense of the MAGA tribe, is likely to be the most productive type of attack or defense. 

The game has been played that way for a very long time. The lunatic statements offered this weekend—assassin in search of a massacre, domestic terrorist—seem to have taken us over some previously unknown line:

The Wall Street Journal has said it doesn't make sense. So has the New York Post!

No one has ever stood up and asked the president why he behaves in the way he does. Also, as we've often noted, no one has dared to ask if some sort of "personality disorder" might start to explain the highly erratic behavior he persistently displays. 

(That said, you don't have to seek the cause of persistent misconduct to say that the persistent misconduct must stop.)

The president's ludicrous misstatements have long been his calling card. That behavior is matched by the mainstream press corps' unwavering cowardice / deference / avoidance. 

The president's behavior is completely unacceptable! No news org has ever said it. Over the weekend, lunatic conduct by Noem and Bovino and Miller and Bessent seems to have, if only temporarily, taken us past some red line. 

WITNESS: Jesse Watters was at it again!

MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2026

Human error prevails: One day before the (latest) fatal shooting, Jesse Watters was at it again. He was sitting on the set of The Five, this nation's most-watched "cable news" program. 

Parodically, the program assembles a five-member panel each day. Four of the panelists are overtly pro-MAGA. On days when Jessica Tarlov fills the fifth chair, one on the panelists isn't.

On such days, the program gains its high frisson from the way the four interrupt and assail the one. On Friday, January 23, the panel's two camps looked like this:

The Five: January 23, 2026
Paul Mauro: Fox News contributor
Jesse Watters: co-host, The Five
Martha MacCallum: anchor, The Story (Fox News)
Tyrus: former professional "wrestler"

Jessica Tarlov: twice-weekly co-host, The Five

Mercifully, Greg Gutfeld wasn't there.

The latest fatal shooting hadn't happened yet. Still, this imitation news program devoted its opening segment to a familiar task—to the task of debunking the types of "horrific smears" being directed at ICE.

When it came her time to attempt to speak, Tarlov began quoting statements in which established law enforcement officials have criticized behaviors by ICE. At one point in her presentation, Watters apparently decided that he, and the program's millions of viewers, had finally heard enough. 

He interrupted Tarlov, describing one of the matters she had cited as the latest example of "fake news." He went on to make a set of improbable claims—claims which were subjected to something like ridicule in this report by Mediaite:

Jesse Watters Claims ICE Jails Are ‘Amazing’ and That Detainees Are ‘Lucky’ to Have ‘Healthcare Services’

Fox host Jesse Watters said that immigration detention centers were “amazing” on Friday, claiming detainees were “lucky” to receive healthcare services in ICE jails.

Watters spoke to co-hosts on The Five about allegations of abuse by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, including the recent case of a Cuban immigrant who died in a Texas immigration facility after witnesses claimed he was choked by guards.

“It’s already been debunked weeks ago,” Watters said to co-host Jessica Tarlov when she mentioned the incident. “The guy was trying to commit suicide, and the people were trying to save his life.”

Tarlov's claim about the Cuban immigrant was "fake news," Watters said. He went on to conduct this silly exchange with Tarlov, as transcribed by Mediaite:

WATTERS: These detention centers are amazing! You get dental care.

TARLOV: Jesse–

WATTERS: You get free healthcare. Have you ever seen the kind of concierge healthcare services they have at these detention facilities?

TARLOV: I saw Alligator Alcatraz.

WATTERS: Where did this guy come from?

TARLOV: Jesse, then you go. Go live in there!

WATTERS: This guy came from Ecuador [sic[ without running water. He’s lucky to have these types of services.

In effect, exchanges like that function as a parody of serious news discussion. Mediaite was apparently struck by Watters' praise for the kind of "concierge healthcare services" provided at these detention facilities. 

At this site, we decided to go one step further. We decided to fact-check Watters' initial claim—his claim about Tarlov's "fake news." 

According to Watters, the immigrant to whom Tarlov referred had actually committed suicide, in spite of efforts by ICE personnel to save his life. As is typical on The Five, the facts of this matter never emerged from this pseudo-discussion. 

That said, Tarlov had been referring to Geraldo Lunas Campos, a Cuban who did in fact die on January 3 at the Texas facility in question. Late on January 23, Watters was hotly insisting that Campos' death had actually been a suicide. 

But two days earlier, the El Paso medical examiner had issued the autopsy report. His findings were described in this AP report reprinted by PBS:

Cuban immigrant in ICE custody died of homicide due to asphyxia, autopsy finds

 A Cuban migrant held in solitary confinement at an immigration detention facility in Texas died after guards held him down and he stopped breathing, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday that ruled the death a homicide.

Geraldo Lunas Campos died Jan. 3 following an altercation with guards. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the 55-year-old father of four was attempting suicide and the staff tried to save him.

But a witness told The Associated Press last week that Lunas Campos was handcuffed as at least five guards held him down and one put an arm around his neck and squeezed until he was unconscious.

His death was one of at least three reported in little more than a month at Camp East Montana, a sprawling tent facility in the desert on the grounds of Fort Bliss, an Army base.

The autopsy report by the El Paso County Medical Examiner's Office found Lunas Campos' body showed signs of a struggle, including abrasions on his chest and knees. He also had hemorrhages on his neck. The deputy medical examiner, Dr. Adam Gonzalez. determined the cause of death was asphyxia due to neck and torso compression.

The report said witnesses saw Lunas Campos "become unresponsive while being physically restrained by law enforcement." It did not elaborate on what happened during the struggle but cited evidence of injuries to his neck, head and torso associated with physical restraint. The report also noted the presence of petechial hemorrhages—tiny blood spots from burst capillaries that can be associated with intense strain or injury—in the eyelids and skin of the neck.

In this case, it almost sounds like those "concierge" services failed.

That official finding was two days old when Watters interrupted Tarlov to describe her report as "fake news." Aside from the Associated Press, the finding had been widely reported by an array of other major news orgs.

In fairness, everybody makes mistakes. That even seems to include the aforementioned Jesse Watters. 

Watters is a regular co-host on The Five, the nation's most-watched "cable news" show. His own nightly show, Jesse Watters Primetime, is the second most-watched such program.

Everyone makes mistakes, but Watters' error on this day fits a familiar pattern—as did the apparent group assault reported in the case of the Cuban immigrant. Indeed, a somewhat similar type of group assault may imaginably seem to have taken place in Minneapolis the very next day.

Human error is a constant in human affairs. We refer to human intellectual error, but also to issues of moral judgment.

Human error is one thing, but undisguised lunacy leaped into view in the immediate wake of the latest fatal shooting. In group behavior straight out of Alice in Wonderland, Trump officials enacted this time-honored policy:

Verdict first! Investigation later!

Alex Pretti was fatally shot on Saturday January 24. The next morning, we were struck by what we saw and heard on the Fox & Friends Weekend program. 

We've begun the week with what Watters said because it deserves recording. All in all, human error has been so widespread in the past two days that it's hard to know where to begin.

Tomorrow: Verdict first, they said