Newsbusters

Reacting to a new Gallup poll finding that public attitudes toward immigration have become more positive since last year, MSNBC host Ayman Mohyeldin cheerfully mused on Saturday over the possibility that Democrats will return to talk of abolishing ICE.

Without mentioning that, according to the poll, 59 percent of Americans still support hiring more border patrol agents, co-host Antonia Hylton speculated about why some Americans have changed their minds and wondered how the polling might affect how Democrats approach the issue:

So two things can be true. You did vote for this, but then also to see it in action is a completely different experience, I think. Do you see now that this polling has come out — I’m curious how you think Democrats — about how Democrats are going to re-strategize around this. Because a significant amount of the party still believes that when you’re battling against someone like Donald Trump, what you’re supposed to do is actually try to meet them where they are and match them on issues like immigration.

After Mohyeldin injected, “Like talk policy,” Hylton added:

Exactly, or try to prove that they have some, like, level of right-wing bona fides on the issue. Do you think now they’ll look at this and go, “Oh, wait a minute. We can go back to a different message. We can talk about the American Dream and the value of immigrants, and maybe that won’t be a huge risk to us”?

Mohyeldin then began grinning as he seemed to pine for Democrats to double down on the more far-left talk from a few years ago about actually abolishing ICE:

MOHYELDIN: Or we can — we can say, “Abolish ICE.” That was the thing at one point, do you remember? Everybody was like talking about abolishing ICE. That was —

CATHERINE RAMPELL: Well, it wasn’t — now, I don’t think everybody — and Democrats were freaked out by that — by that slogan.

MOHYELDIN: Correct, but what I meant to say, to Antonia’s point, is “Abolish ICE” was something that you could say, and it was a debate within the Democratic party whether that should be part of the platform. Obviously, they did not go that route, and now we’re here in the situation where, as you were saying, they’re kid of wishy-washy on what they should do. We’ve had many members of Congress sit in that chair who have — I’ve asked, “Should ICE be abolished?” And they’re still kind of tiptoeing around it even though ICE is acting with more impunity — masks, some are even saying that’s illegal.

A couple of hours later, as Congressman Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) appeared as a guest, Mohyeldin began the segment by bringing up the issue again as he complained about recent ICE actions:

MOHYELDIN: Last time you were on the show, I asked you if ICE should be abolished. You said ICE should be reformed. And I want to keep coming back to this because I think the more we see of ICE, the more we see of its egregious behavior — the impunity that it’s operating with, the fact that it is becoming almost a stand-alone military —

CONGRESSMAN ADRIANO ESPAILLAT (D-NY): It’s a runaway train.

MOHYELDIN: It’s a runaway train. And do you still believe that it can be reformed? I mean, you have introduced legislation in the past about abolishing ICE, and I’m curious to know why you changed.

Transcript follows:

MSNBC’s The Weekend Primetime

July 12, 2025

6:24 p.m. Eastern

ANTONIA HYLTON: So two things can be true. You did vote for this, but then also to see it in action is a completely different experience, I think. Do you see now that this polling has come out — I’m curious how you think Democrats about how Democrats are going to re-strategize around this. Because a significant amount of the party still believes that when you’re battling against someone like Donald Trump, what you’re supposed to do is actually try to meet them where they are and match them on issues like immigration.

AYMAN MOHYELDIN: Like talk policy.

HYLTON: Exactly, or try to prove that they have some, like, level of right-wing bona fides on the issue. Do you think now they’ll look at this and go, “Oh, wait a minute. We can go back to a different message. We can talk about the American Dream and the value of immigrants, and maybe that won’t be a huge risk to us”?

MOHYELDIN: Or we can — we can say, “Abolish ICE.” That was the thing at one point, do you remember? Everybody was like talking about abolishing ICE. That was —

CATHERINE RAMPELL: Well, it wasn’t — now, I don’t think everybody — and Democrats were freaked out by that — by that slogan.

MOHYELDIN: Correct, but what I meant to say, to Antonia’s point, is “Abolish ICE” was something that you could say, and it was a debate within the Democratic party whether that should be part of the platform. Obviously, they did not go that route, and now we’re here in the situation where, as you were saying, they’re kid of wishy washy on what they should do. We’ve had many members of Congress sit in that chair who have — I’ve asked, “Should ICE be abolished?” And they’re still kind of tiptoeing around it even though ICE is acting with more impunity — masks, some are even saying that’s illegal.

(…)

8:17 p.m. Eastern

MOHYELDIN: Last time you were on the show, I asked you if ICE should be abolished. You said ICE should be reformed. And I want to keep coming back to this because I think the more we see of ICE, the more we see of its egregious behavior — the impunity that it’s operating with, the fact that it is becoming almost a stand alone military —

CONGRESSMAN ADRIANO ESPAILLAT (D-NY): It’s a runaway train.

MOHYELDIN: It’s a runaway train. And do you still believe that it can be reformed? I mean, you have introduced legislation in the past about abolishing ICE, and I’m curious to know why you changed.

An explosive New York Times interview with former President Joe Biden revealed that he signed off on pardon guidelines for the mass pardons of drug and other offenders, and delegated signoff authority to his chief of staff, who then directed the autopen. These revelations will surely blow the ongoing autopen scandal wide open. And yet, NBC News was the only legacy network nightly newscast to report on the revelations. 

Watch, as NBC’s Garrett Haake squeezed the autopen disclosures into his White House roundup:

Behold the only legacy network newscast mention of the exploding Biden autopen scandal: 29 seconds on NBC Nightly News. pic.twitter.com/su2JpGj2gV
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) July 15, 2025

GARRETT HAAKE: Tonight, President Trump also responding to former President Biden who, in a new interview with The New York Times called Trump and other Republicans “liars” for saying his aides had used an autopen without his authorization for thousands of pardons and clemencies issued in his administration’s final weeks. Biden telling the times, quote, “I made every decision”, while acknowledging his staff used an autopen to apply his signature because he said “we’re talking about a whole lot of people”. Trump, who has also made use of an autopen, responding.

DONALD TRUMP: I guarantee he knew nothing about what he was signing. I guarantee it.

The 29-second brief, reactively set to Trump-hostile framing, didn’t even come close to addressing the substance of the revelations, or the process for some of these pardons. Per the Times:

Mr. Biden did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people, he and aides confirmed. Rather, after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, he signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence.

Even after Mr. Biden made that decision, one former aide said, the Bureau of Prisons kept providing additional information about specific inmates, resulting in small changes to the list. Rather than ask Mr. Biden to keep signing revised versions, his staff waited and then ran the final version through the autopen, which they saw as a routine procedure, the aide said.

These revelations alone warranted more than 29 seconds on NBC, and crickets on ABC, CBS, Univision and Telemundo. There will certainly be subpoenas and further congressional hearings on the autopen pardons, and time will tell whether the networks chime in at that point.

What is clear: a cabal of unelected White House officials freely usurped and exercised presidential power. In the case of pardons, that power is absolute. Time will tell whether these staffers will face accountability, or whether the legacy media will get off their backsides and cover it.

Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on NBC Nightly News on Monday, July 14th, 2025:

TOM LLAMAS: Now to the new move by President Trump announcing the U.S. will send military aid to Ukraine, paid for by NATO allies. And issuing a warning to Vladimir Putin if he does not make a peace deal. Garrett Haake is at The White House.

GARRETT HAAKE: Tonight, as Russian troops push across the battlefields of eastern Ukraine, President Trump unveiling a new plan to force Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table: rearm Ukraine with American military aid, including Patriot air defense system, that will be distributed and paid for by NATO allies.

DONALD TRUMP: This is billions of dollars worth of military equipment that’s going to be purchased from the United States, going to NATO, et cetera. (VIDEO SWIPE) They’re paying for everything. We’re not paying anymore.

HAAKE: President Trump also setting a 50-day deadline for Putin to end the war or face imposition of what he called secondary tariffs meant to choke off Russia’s economy through steep penalties on its trading partners.

DONALD TRUMP: We’re going to do secondary tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days, it’s very simple. And they will be at 100%.

HAAKE: The president making plain his frustration with Putin’s flattery and failures to follow through on talks of peace.

TRUMP: I go home, I tell the First Lady, “I spoke to Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation. She said, oh, really? Another city was just hit.” So it’s like, look, he’s — I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy.

HAAKE: Ukraine’s president Zelenskyy reacting saying, “I am grateful to President Trump for his readiness to help protect our people’s lives.”

Tonight, President Trump also responding to former President Biden who, in a new interview with The New York Times called Trump and other Republicans “liars” for saying his aides had used an autopen without his authorization for thousands of pardons and clemencies issued in his administration’s final weeks. Biden telling the times, quote, “I made every decision”, while acknowledging his staff used an autopen to apply his signature because he said “we’re talking about a whole lot of people”. Trump, who has also made use of an autopen, responding.

TRUMP: I guarantee he knew nothing about what he was signing. I guarantee it.

HAAKE: And tonight, in a victory for President Trump, the Supreme Court ruled he can fire nearly 1400 employees in the Department of Education, after a lower court blocked the mass layoffs. The president wants to eliminate the department, which only Congress can do. Tom.

LLAMAS: All right. Garrett, thank you.

 

The debate over so-called “public” broadcasting should be focused on its fundamental unfairness toward Republicans and undisguised loathing of conservatives. PBS and NPR and their Democrat allies want this fight to be over phony issues like Elmo and emergency alerts. They can’t deny how flagrantly they push a leftist agenda, so they have to change the subject. 

One reason Republicans have never had the intestinal fortitude to defund the “public” networks is their fear of the private networks on the Left. They’ve feared a Big Bird bombing from ABC, CBS, and NBC, not just PBS. They worried about The New York Times and The Washington Post, all the “prestige media.” Who wants to pick a fight with the entire liberal media? Then along came Trump.

Once again on Sunday, CBS Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan went to bat for PBS with so much enthusiasm you’d joke she’s getting free Elmo dolls under the table. The PBS-DNC complex has pounced on the talking point that NPR and PBS are somehow essential for emergency alerts. Brennan hinted people would die if PBS/NPR funding was cut. She asked Sen. Rand Paul: “We looked and in your state of Kentucky, public broadcasters provide critical emergency warnings for the government if there’s a storm, for example. Are you concerned that these kind of cuts are going to endanger people?”

Earth to Marge: Every broadcaster is required to post emergency alerts, not to mention all the warnings that will pop up on cellphones. CBS anchors pretend there aren’t CBS stations in many towns with an NPR station. CBS did a story from Shreveport like they had no local news — forget the local CBS affiliate. Liberals always want to suggest that whenever Republicans want to cut government spending, people will die.

Craig Bannister has a story up at NewsBusters on Texas Public Radio that you’ll want to check out. If you’re only looking at Facebook pages, Texas Public Radio was more desperate to send a alert about securing their own taxpayer money that it was about any flash-flood alerts. It’s not a good look.

Enjoy the podcast below, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Fresh from a week off, CBS’s John Dickerson returns to the airwaves with a particularly pompous fit of cope and seethe over the Paramount-Skydance settlement with President Donald Trump. What’s most notable about his too-cute-by-half is its one glaring omission.

Watch the editorial here in its entirety, as aired on CBS Evening News Plus on Monday, July 14th, 2025:

JOHN DICKERSON: From time to time, American presidents have fantasized about punishing journalists. John Adams went all the way. On this day in 1798, the second president signed the Sedition Act, a law he then used to jail a journalist. The man was James Thompson Callender, the most notorious writer of his day. Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton didn’t agree on much, but they both hated Callender. His lack of friends explain why an old law book describes Callender as “a scotchman, of whom nothing good is known.” They called him a “scandalmonger”. His enemies said he drank too much and was crawling with lice. Callender broke the story of Alexander Hamilton’s affair with a married woman, causing the downfall dramatized in the musical Hamilton. Callender targeted members of the Federalist Party, which is why Jefferson, a leader of the rival party, hired him to go after presidential candidate John Adams during the election of 1800. Callender labeled Adams a tyrant in writing that was so personal Adams jailed him, claiming Callender threatened national security, which is the kind of thing tyrants do: fabricating emergencies to justify repression. Jefferson won that election and pardoned Callender. But when you hire an attack dog, you must keep him fed. Jefferson didn’t give Callender a job he thought he’d been promised, and Callender then turned his pen on the president. He poured forth against Mr. Jefferson “a torrent of scurrility and slander, of which no example had been previously afforded in the United States, not even by himself”, read one account. Callender wrote that Jefferson had a relationship with the enslaved woman Sally Hemings, a claim that would later prove true. Callender’s life of mayhem spun out in the James River, where he drowned, reportedly drunk. His death notice was short. No one mourned him. The Sedition Act had a bad end, too, seen as one of the clearest violations in American history of the Constitution’s protections of free speech and a free press. One aspect of the story does live on, though the temptation to silence dissent endures in presidents- wherever they fear being questioned. 

A week off the air after having to report on the aforementioned settlement did Dickerson absolutely no favors. Tonight’s offering is a throwback to the Sedition Act of 1798, and a muckraker cast as a brave First Amendment warrior. One supposes that Dickerson agrees with Paramount’s characterization of the settlement as “an affront to the First Amendment”, hence this is his first editorial out of the chute. 

Another interpretation of the facts suggests that Dickerson went all the way back to Adams and Jefferson’s dealings with James Callender so as to avoid modern, more egregious and ACTUAL attacks on the Free Press and abuses of The First Amendment. How else to explain the mention of Jefferson and Adams, but not President Barack Obama’s actual, more recent, and more egregious abuses of the press? 

For starters, there’s the persecution of James Rosen, then of Fox News and now Chief White House Correspondent at Newsmax. James was nice enough to lay it all out in a recent X post, for those who might not recall.

There’s James Risen, formerly of The New York Times, who was put through the ringer because he refused to reveal his sources to Eric Holder’s Department of Justice.

Dickerson’s former colleague at CBS, Sharryl Attkisson, reported on The DoJ’s role in Operation Fast & Furious, which angered many in the Obama administration. Her computer was hacked by the Obama Department of Justice.

There was also the wiretapping of The Associated Press- another egregious abuse of the freedom of the press.

Dickerson mentions none of these more recent instances of attacks against the free press in his editorial screed. Doing so would undermine the barely-veiled attack against Trump by exposing Obama as an actual enemy of freedom of the press. That’s (D)ifferent, you see.

 

Ahead of a likely vote this week on a rescissions package to claw back $1 billion in funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and PBS, CBS’s streaming platform and MSNBC went full doom and gloom and lied to viewers Monday, insulting their intelligence by arguing rural Americans rely on NPR and PBS as “critical” lifeline, “their only source of information,” and “emergency alerts.”

CBS’s free news channel CBS News 24/7 first broached the rescission package in the 10:00 a.m. Eastern hour. 

Congressional correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns cited the funding for NPR and PBS as part of the package (along with USAID) and falsely claimed these far-left stations are “the only major source of information, especially in cases of emergencies like the one we just saw in Texas recently”:

Fact check: Pants on fire.

As we’ve established at NewsBusters, less than six percent of daily programming on NPR stations in rural states are actually local newscasts with the rest being national news and talk programs.

Secondly, we also noted this month that Pew pegs the number of Americans with internet access at 96 percent with Starlink having potential to even further bridge that remaining gap.

Third, the funding they claim that would go away is sent to the stations…but then rerouted back to the national mothership as licensing fees.

Fourth, our Craig Bannister took a look at Texas NPR affiliates and their response to the deadly Hill Country floods. Sadly, it’s been silence. On their social media page, they were too busy with (likely timed) posts demanding support amid the rescission fight.

And they had abandoned X — still a major source of news and information for at least 20 percent of the country — in 2023.

Those reasons don’t even touch its far-left bias, such we’ve covered exhaustively (see studies here, here, here, here, and here to get the idea).

Huey-Burns reupped this lie continued a few hours later, doubling down on the claim that GOP senators “from very rural states” might buck President Trump because “it’s really their only source of information” for their constituents:

Anchor Reed Cowan from CBS San Francisco concurred with this caveman worldview of rural Americans in the year of our Lord 2025: “Well, and I’m a child of rural America myself, and so I’m very much aware of the conversation relative to rural impacts on radio and rural impacts on hospitals, etc. They are constituents. It’s fascinating to hear from them.”

At the same time, MSNBC’s Chris Jansing Reports had a full segment on the rescissions package with Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman. Jansing fretted Trump was looking to claw back funding from “popular programs” like PBS and NPR.

Sherman obviously agreed, citing “concerns among rural lawmakers that public broadcasting is going to be cut.”

After Sherman explained to Jansing that rescissions packages are different from the wider discussion of the legislative ceding authority to the executive over multiple lifetimes, he closed with the same disparaging stereotyping of rural Americans, suggesting these (ruby red) individuals would be unable to find out about the world around them without NPR and PBS:

Back on CBS News 24/7, Huey-Burns’s colleague Nikole Killion took the baton an hour and a half later:

To see the relevant July 14 transcripts, click here (for CBS News 24/7) and here (for MSNBC).

Leftist extremists were trying to kill agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the liberal media and liberal politicians were pretending like it wasn’t happening. That was one the points NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo made on his eponymous show Friday night, when he directly called out Democratic Party leaders by name and demanded the media to do more to condemn the attempts to harm ICE agents.

While decrying how the immigration debate was “dominated by divisive, extreme, fringe movements” on both sides, Cuomo called out the leftist extremists who were trying to kill people. “[The left are] trying to hurt ICE officers. They’re trying to shoot ICE agents. These are extremists in our ranks,” he warned.

“We need leaders and really the leaders in our media to get back to focusing on what the majority needs and wants. And rest assured the majority in America is reasonable,” Cuomo said. Citing a Pew poll, he argued that 32 percent said all illegals needed to be deported and a smaller 16 percent wanted no one deported, which he described as “the AOC cuckoo crowd.”

Adding: “So, we don’t believe in the main that everyone should be deported or no one should be deported. We are reasonable. The fringes however dominate social media but not society.”

Cuomo went on to denounce “these people on the far-left-fringe” who want “to hurt the ICE officers” and only wanted them unmasked for that they could target their families too, and compared them 60s extremists groups like the Black Panthers:

But I got to tell you something. I’m criticizing the ICE practices, right, and the policy. But I will never think that this is okay. That these people on the far-left fringe come and they want to hurt the ICE officers. You want to get their faces and get their identity so you can dox them and intimidate their family. You are silent or tacitly accepting the need for violence to change ICE’s policies.

Seriously? You really think that makes you better? Find Dr. King saying that. Find any of the people who fought the real fight in this country for suffrage in the 60’s what worked and what didn’t. You sound like people who backed the Black Panthers, not the move for justice for blacks in this country. But this is where we are. This is crazy.

 

 

He went on to warn that if the left’s penchant for violence became normalized that it could spell the end of America:

Who thinks that shooting at the ICE agents is okay because you hate what they’re doing and they’re hurting people and communities? Because I got to tell you, if we get anywhere near a majority thinking, ‘yeah, I think that’s what they should do,’ this is not America anymore. The democracy is dead. It’s over. It’s over. If you believe that injustice is the answer to injustice, it’s over. It’s over.

Taking a shot at their egos, mocked the “educated and privileged” liberal “punks online” who “just type in to me about why these are heroes on the street.” “[W]hy don’t you get your asses out in the street if you’re so hard, if you believe it so much,” he told them.

“That’s why it bothers me that the leaders on the left are quiet about this, and the media is too,” he declared. “AOC, Bernie, Jeffries, you want to lead speak up now and about this. And don’t do it this way like Governor Newsom saying the attacks on the ICE agents are wrong, BUT so was January 6. Really?”

He even mocked Newsom’s false bravado, saying, “You think this makes you a leader because you’re like stiffening your spine? Come on, man.”

The transcript is below. Click “expand” to read:

NewsNation’s Cuomo
July 11, 2025
8:01:05 p.m. Eastern

(…)

CHRIS CUOMO: We are dominated by divisive, extreme, fringe movements. And the conflict is growing. Why? Because it works for the two sides. It is a media and a political culture choosing to make the few dictate the fate of the many.

That’s why we see ICE agents running around communities casting a way wider net than just bad hombres. And the reaction by the fringe against them on the left, right? Because the right on the extreme fringe, it’s very pro-hostile policing. Right? The other side. Is now, not just protesting, which is their right. But they’re trying to hurt ICE officers. They’re trying to shoot ICE agents. These are extremists in our ranks. We need leaders and really the leaders in our media to get back to focusing on what the majority needs and wants.

And rest assured the majority in America is reasonable. For instance, immigration. Right? Huge conflictual will issue. Or is it? Most Americans believe there has to be a balance of securing the border and welcoming immigrants. The majority tilt in favor of mercy in that balance. Not straight MAGA harshness. Only 32 percent say all illegal entrance should be deported.

Now, that will be painted by the fringe as what? Open borders, open borders! It’s not open borders. Only 70 percent believe – Over, over 70 percent of us believe the border should be policed and the law should be enforced. Nowhere near a majority want anything like open borders. That is only for the AOC cuckoo crowd; 16 percent say no one should be deported. Okay?

So, we don’t believe in the main that everyone should be deported or no one should be deported. We are reasonable. The fringes however dominate social media but not society.

(…)

8:06:30 p.m. Eastern

But I got to tell you something. I’m criticizing the ICE practices, right, and the policy. But I will never think that this is okay. That these people on the far-left fringe come and they want to hurt the ICE officers. You want to get their faces and get their identity so you can dox them and intimidate their family. You are silent or tacitly accepting the need for violence to change ICE’s policies.

Seriously? You really think that makes you better? Find Dr. King saying that. Find any of the people who fought the real fight in this country for suffrage in the 60’s what worked and what didn’t. You sound like people who backed the Black Panthers, not the move for justice for blacks in this country. But this is where we are. This is crazy.

So, here’s my next point. The reason that we’re seeing, okay, is that the extreme is working too well for the media cycle in the political cycle. So, working too well. And we see this and now that it’s a constant obsession for everybody in politics, no matter what the party is. Right?

So, you can’t – You know, we have to agree on certain things. Who thinks that shooting at the ICE agents is okay because you hate what they’re doing and they’re hurting people and communities? Because I got to tell you, if we get anywhere near a majority thinking, ‘yeah, I think that’s what they should do,’ this is not America anymore. The democracy is dead. It’s over. It’s over. If you believe that injustice is the answer to injustice, it’s over. It’s over.

(…)

8:08:45 p.m. Eastern

CUOMO: And these punks online. So many of them educated and privileged, who are okay with this. That the part I don’t get; why don’t you get your asses out in the street if you’re so hard, if you believe it so much. Instead of just type in to me about why these are heroes on the street. That’s why it bothers me that the leaders on the left are quiet about this, and the media is too.

AOC, Bernie, Jeffries, you want to lead speak up now and about this. And don’t do it this way like Governor Newsom saying the attacks on the ICE agents are wrong, BUT so was January 6. Really? Where does this battle of which side is worse create a winner for the majority? You think this makes you a leader because you’re like stiffening your spine? Come on, man.

(…)

On Sunday, former President Biden’s handlers made the inexplicable decision to throw him out in public — nevermind that it was to the friendly New York Times — to address allegations of pervasive autopen usage during his presidency. Of course, Biden made it worse by admitting, in The Times’s summation, he “did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons.”

And, in a transcript of Biden’s answers, he came off as rather incoherent.

Despite all that, the major broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC completely ignored this on their flagship Monday morning news shows. This squared with a June 23 study by our Geoff Dickens that found zeroes across the board on Biden’s use of autopen.

Axios’s Alex Thompson pulled out the key passage:

Unsurprisingly, Times reporters Charlie Savage and Tyler Pager tried to put a positive spin on this for Biden, most notably their headline and subhead: “Biden Says He Made the Clemency Decisions That Were Recorded With Autopen; Donald J. Trump and his allies have begun investigations to support their claims that Joseph R. Biden Jr. was incapacitated and his staff conspired to take presidential actions in his name.”

Our friend and 2022 MRC Bulldog Award winner Drew Holden also took Savage and Pager to task for their misleading story structure with the key admission of Biden being unaware of certain pardons coming buried in paragraphs 32 and 36, respectively:

In paragraph 37, The Times noted “the Bureau of Prisons kept providing additional information about specific inmates, resulting in small changes to the list” and “[r]ather than ask Mr. Biden to keep signing revised versions, his staff waited and then ran the final version through the autopen, which they saw as a routine procedure, the aide said.”

The excerpted transcript of Biden’s answers was quite something, giving the hypen a high-intensity workout:

Additionally, while CNN has covered it with full segments on CNN News Central and Inside Politics, MSNBC has only made one direct mention of it as of this blog’s publication. 

MSNBC’s only nod came in breaking away from President Trump’s Oval Office remarks to the press, blasting this as a generational scandal. 10:00 a.m. Eastern host Ana Cabrera awkwardly broke in to steer matters back to Ukraine, but not before first insisting: “Just a reminder, since we’re talking about autopen, autopen is legal. President Trump uses it.”

In contrast, ABC, CBS, and NBC combined for nine minutes and 28 seconds on the split inside the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement over the Jeffrey Epstein case. 

But that wasn’t all they did to waste time. ABC’s Good Morning America spent two minute and 12 seconds on the latest attempt by the Menendez brothers to be released from prison and an absurd three minutes and 15 seconds on the alleged new trend of buying second-hand vacations.

Over on CBS Mornings, they had 81 seconds educating viewers on Bastille Day and then NBC’s Today gave nearly four minutes (3:58) to reminding viewers of the benefits to rewards programs at casual and fast-casual restaurant chains.

The mainstream media has leaned into hailing Imam Ayman Soliman as a persecuted “interfaith leader,” in an attempt to garner sympathy while glossing over key facts. On MSNBC’s The Weekend: Primetime, hosts bemoaned the “unjust” detention of someone they referred to as a community leader who “came to the U.S. From Egypt in 2014 seeking asylum” and “has dedicated his life to interfaith work.” Yet, downplayed his appearance on a federal terrorism watchlist.

 

Official documents confirm Soliman’s asylum status, which was granted in mid‑2018, was revoked in June by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, following a December 2024 notification of intent (during the Biden administration). U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials confirmed he was flagged in the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Dataset, information largely absent from liberal media coverage.
Soliman filed FOIA lawsuits against the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center claiming an “FBI flag” was wrongfully placed on his name. Judge Loren L. AliKhan, who was appointed by President Biden to serve on D.C.’s District Court, granted summary judgment to the government on March 31, 2025, and rejected Soliman’s request to compel disclosure of records. 
Host Antonia Hylton introduced the audience to Soliman free of these facts, painting him as an innocent man of faith who was baselessly detained by ICE:

Another immigrant suddenly detained by ICE, sparking unanswered questions about due process and leaving a community in uproar. This is Imam Ayman Soliman, a former chaplain at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. He came to the U.S. from Egypt in 2014 seeking asylum, and since then he’s dedicated his life to interfaith work, supporting families fighting for their kids’ recovery, or praying for those suffering from losses in the hospital.

Hylton even further stated that “we don’t know why” Soliman was detained, and mentioned he was being held at the “controversial” Butler County Jail. Hylton did not elaborate on or provide evidence as to why the jail was supposedly controversial. 
The panel then interviewed two mothers, whose children were patients at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. The mothers, Heather Barrow and Taylor McLean, recounted how Soliman “was instrumental in just providing a comforting presence during a really scary time” and “a huge presence in our lives… our daughter is living today because of his advocacy.”
During the interview, the audience was subjected to an onslaught of praise for Soliman, which highlighted only his work as the Hospital’s chaplain. At best, the recollections of Solimani’s time as chaplain were vague, with the mothers’ only describing him as supportive and comforting. 
While several media outlets have emphasized his hospital chaplaincy and community support, they largely omit that Soliman had previously been supported by the group YUSRA (Young United Souls for Revolutionary Action), a Muslim grassroots political organization which explicitly positions itself around “revolutionary actions aimed at fostering systemic change.”
Public statements from DHS officials directly reference the terror‑watchlist flag as justification for revocation, as confirmed by the Assistant Secretary of Department of Homeland Security in an X post.

Hosts Ayman Mohyeldin and Antonia Hylton repeatedly pushed the false narrative that there was no evidence to support the detention of Soliman. Mohyeldin ignored how the removal process started under President Biden to frame it as solely an Trump admonition decision (Click “expand”):

MOHYELDIN: Allen, can I go back to a point that you brought up and it’s almost to kind of separate the case of the individual with the rights of due process here? You know, we don’t know exactly as you and others have been talking about, we don’t know the case, his asylum and what may have gotten him to this point and why he was ultimately detained. And there are a lot of questions about that.
But at the same time, the fact that people believe he was not granted due process. Can you tell us what are the rights of people? And I think we saw a similar parallel with the case around Kilmer Abrego Garcia. He may not have been the perfect man or the perfect case, but that’s even more reason to say you have to ensure due process rights for everyone, even the people in our society who may have a question mark over their behavior or their actions.

Hylton’s description of the county jail treated it akin to a CIA black site, allowing immigration lawyer Allen Orr to suggest Soliman would be tortured at Butler County Jail, despite– again– zero evidence to substantiate the claim, and alluded that illegal immigration is not a “real crime”:

ORR: So, if your only crime is entering the United States, then you should be returned to your country. You should not be put in torture in the United States. We’ve seen a vast variety, and I’ve been to many detention centers close to the border and removed from the border. This is not the way you treat people to put them in places of places where people actually committed real crimes.

The truth of the matter is that there has been a plethora of evidence that has surfaced since Soliman’s detention, but the media were preoccupied with crafting headlines full of sappy adjectives to describe him. It seemed like MSNBC cared more about creating sob stories that demonize the Trump administration rather than reporting the facts. 

The entire transcript is below. Click “expand” to read

MSNBC’s The Weekend: Primetime
June 13, 2025
7:14:16 PM ET

ANTONIA HYLTON: Another immigrant suddenly detained by ICE, sparking unanswered questions about due process and leaving a community in uproar. This is Imam Ayman Soliman, a former chaplain at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. He came to the U.S. from Egypt in 2014 seeking asylum, and since then he’s dedicated his life to interfaith work, supporting families fighting for their kids’ recovery, or praying for those suffering from losses in the hospital.

The Biden administration started the process to revoke his asylum status in 2024, and we don’t know yet, why? Because the government has not explained that decision. But the Trump administration finalized it last month. Then, this past Wednesday, ICE arrested him during a check in. He is now being detained in the Butler County Jail near Cincinnati, a controversial site that has partnered with DHS to hold immigrant detainees under both Trump administrations. Its ICE contract was canceled during Biden’s presidency.

For Ayman, the future is now uncertain. Hundreds have raised money for his legal defense, and many shared character testimonies, hoping the government would change course. They say he was there for families of all faiths in the hospital, in their children’s greatest time of need, and on the day he was arrested, here’s what he told a state official in an interview.

[Cuts to video]

AYMAN SOLIMAN [IN CLIP FROM INTERVIEW]: If anything happens, just to speak about me.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yeah.

SOLIMAN: That this is unfair. And going back to Egypt for me is a death sentence. It’s not. I didn’t come to America seeking a better life. It was escaping death.

[Cuts back to live]

HYLTON: Joining us now are two moms whose children were cared for by a mom Imam Ayman Soliman, Heather Barrow and Taylor McLean. Also with us is Allen Orr, immigration attorney, and the former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Thank you all for being here with us this evening.

Heather, I want to begin with you. Tell us the story of how you met Ayman, and what it was like for your family, working with him, hearing from him while you and your children were at the hospital.

HEATHER BARROW: Thank you for having us. I had my daughter last June at a different local hospital, and then we were transferred to Children’s three days later. She was born at six months. She was very premature, very sick, and we spent June to mid-November in the NICU with her before she unfortunately passed.

And Ayman was with us every step of the way. We met him the first day we were at Children’s, and I think we saw him almost every day we were there, including the day she passed. He was instrumental in just providing a comforting presence during a really scary time of unknowns. And you’re kind of drinking out of a fire hose when you’re in the NICU, because you’re having to learn a lot of really in-depth medical information, all while trying to make the right decision for your child. It’s just incredibly overwhelming.

And Ayman is just so full of love and grace, and he’s just a genuinely good man. That helped us walk through almost six months of just terror and sadness.

AYMAN MOHYELDIN: Taylor, why was it important for you to talk about this and to talk about what Imam Ayman meant for you and your family and the community? I mean, I think a lot of people right now are looking at a lot of cases in this country. They don’t know the names, they don’t know the stories of the people who are being caught up in this immigration process and all the challenges that are currently out there right now facing people in this immigration system. But why did you feel the need to put your name and your story to this case in the public?

HEATHER MCLEAN: Yeah, and again, thank you so much for having us. Ayman was, like Heather said, from day one, a huge presence in our lives. Our daughter was born at 30 weeks with medical complexities and things were really critical from the very beginning. And throughout her stay at the hospital, we were there for ten months. And Ayman, I’m pretty sure we saw him every single day.

Through that time in her critical condition, Ayman was a huge advocate for our family. As a mom who is not medical, it’s kind of hard to get a seat at the table sometimes, especially with all of her medical complexities and all of the teams that were working with our daughter. And so Ayman was kind of that bridge. And any time that I was unsure or there seemed to be question as to what was going to happen in surgery or things like that, Ayman was the first to advocate and make sure that surgeons were in our room, letting us know exactly what was going to happen and making sure everybody was on the same page. So, we can definitely thank Ayman for, you know, our daughter and she’s living today because of his advocacy.

CATHERINE RAMPELL: Allen, we– there are still a lot of things we don’t know about this case and why this man was – why he was detained, why his asylum was taken away in the first place. Can you just walk us through how common or uncommon it is for asylum to be revoked years after it’s been granted? And under what kinds of circumstances this usually happens, if there is even a usually.

ALLEN ORR: Okay, so first, it’s very uncommon. It’s like one percent of the cases, so there are thousands of cases that are approved every year and only one percent is revoked. And this circumstance is a little bit different because what we noticed from Mr. Soliman, is that he stood up for his rights. He was on a watchlist that he shouldn’t have been on and he was mistakenly put on a watchlist, and he sued the government. And it is that retaliation for the error of the government that might have led him to having this problem.

What we do know is he does not represent a threat to our society, as we have seen from your other guests, and that other Americans are going to suffer without having his sort of stewardship to sort of help them in these very difficult process. So it’s very uncommon to do and it really doesn’t behoove us or immigration to lock him up and detain him, in a place where someone has given so much to our society.

HYLTON: Heather, Ayman touched on this a moment ago. This, you know, feeling that so many in the country have right now is they see videos constantly of people being detained, taken from their communities off of streets and workplaces. When you think about just this single person, Mr. Soliman, what does it represent to the community around Cincinnati to lose someone like this?

BARROW: It’s scary. It’s– He’s a very dedicated interfaith leader in the community. He’s very well respected. He’s helped thousands of families just like mine and Taylor’s throughout the city, the nation. You know, Cincinnati Children’s is the best children’s hospital in the country, and they serve people all over the world. So, he’s impacted many, many people. And it’s scary and sad to see such a good man be treated like this, in an unjust way.

MOHYELDIN: Allen, can I go back to a point that you brought up and it’s almost to kind of separate the case of the individual with the rights of due process here? You know, we don’t know exactly as you and others have been talking about, we don’t know the case, his asylum and what may have gotten him to this point and why he was ultimately detained. And there are a lot of questions about that.

But at the same time, the fact that people believe he was not granted due process. Can you tell us what are the rights of people? And I think we saw a similar parallel with the case around Kilmer Abrego Garcia. He may not have been the perfect man or the perfect case, but that’s even more reason to say you have to ensure due process rights for everyone, even the people in our society who may have a question mark over their behavior or their actions.

(…)

7:23:31 PM ET

HYLTON: Allen, can you also speak a bit – You know, he has been sent to the Butler County Jail. This is a county jail run by a local, actually very controversial sheriff in the state of Ohio that contracts with the government to be able to have ICE detainees. What do you know about sites like this one and the way that immigrants are often treated once they are there?

ORR: So, if your only crime is entering the United States, then you should be returned to your country. You should not be put in torture in the United States. We’ve seen a vast variety, and I’ve been to many detention centers close to the border and removed from the border. This is not the way you treat people to put them in places of places where people actually committed real crimes.

(…)

Texas Public Radio claims it should continue receiving taxpayer funding because it provides vital news and emergency alerts that “others don’t” – but, when it comes to the devastating floods of July 4-5, just the opposite appears to be true.

The National Weather Service issued the first flash flood watch for heavily-hit Kerr County at approximately a quarter to one in the morning (12:41 a.m. local time) on Thursday, the day before the flood. By 11:03 a.m., more than ten hours later, Texas Public Radio (TPR) had not yet alerted its Facebook page readers of the danger.

But, it had made dubious claims in a post urging readers to lobby Congress to ensure it keeps receiving taxpayer funding:

“Texas Public Radio delivers what others don’t:

• Trusted news that keeps you informed

• Stories that celebrate South Texas voices

• Emergency alerts that keep our community safe

Now, the Senate is considering a plan to rescind the funding that makes it all possible. You can contact your Senators every day — and every message matters.

Protect your community’s voice. Protect public media. Click the link to take action.

Urge Congress: Don’t Claw Back Public Media Funding

Contact Congress Now!”

 

Meanwhile, private media outlets actually were keeping the local public informed of the flood threat and the National Weather Service emergency alerts warning about it.

At least three flood alerts were issued between Thursday’s 11:03 a.m. (TPR’s lobbying plea) and 8:05 p.m., when Texas Public Radio posted its first Facebook announcement of the flash flood warning.

At 1:14 a.m. Friday morning, a Flash Flood Warning reporting a “considerable” flood danger triggered Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) and National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Radio notifications, automatically interrupting regularly scheduled broadcasts.

Then, at 4:03 a.m. on Friday, July 4, the National Weather Service’s Flash Flood Warning was upgraded to a Flash Flood Emergency. Neither the emergency alert nor the earlier warning was reported on TPR’s Facebook or Instagram pages. Because Texas Public Radio has been inactive on X.com (formerly, Twitter) since 2023, followers were not warned of the floods via this popular social media platform. When the Emergency Alert was issued, TPR stations had just begun airing PBS’s national “Morning Edition” program, which runs from 4:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.

At 5:00 a.m., the National Water Center warned of widespread considerable and catastrophic flooding. A half-hour later, NWS issued a Flash Flood Emergency for the Guadalupe River, signaling a “large and deadly flood wave.”

There is no indication that the TPR local affiliate covering the flood region, KTXI, broke into its regular (and, in this case, national) programming to report on the local breaking news of the flood emergency – but, several private media radio stations in Texas did just that.

Calls and emails to TPR and KTXI for comment and confirmation were unsuccessful, prompting Media Research Center President David Bozell to send a letter to Texas Public Radio President and CEO Ashley Alvarado requesting details of the organization’s flood coverage.

“As an NPR affiliate and public broadcaster that receives significant subsidies from taxpayers, it is imperative that you assure the public that Texas Public Radio, KTXI and the other NPR affiliated stations in Texas provided the same public service as provided by the private radio stations,” Bozell explains in his letter:

“I ask that you send the Media Research Center audio files for all programs that ran on KTXI July 3-4, 2025. In addition, please provide any social media that the station posted connected to the National Weather Service alerts and warnings during that same time period.”

By 7:30 a.m. Friday, several private radio stations had posted reports about the National Weather Service emergency alert on social media and had begun conducting live interviews with the Kerrville County Police Department to provide timely updates on the emergency.

Local 94.3 Rev-FM, for example, broadcast a live interview with Kerrville Police Public Information Officer Sergeant Jonathan Lamb, who warned listeners about which areas were most dangerous and informed them of where they could go for shelter. In all, at least a half dozen radio stations contacted Lamb and conducted interviews to provide their listeners with flood information and updates.

In contrast, KTXI did not cut into its regular broadcast to conduct a live interview with a Kerrville police spokesperson and provide its listeners with “Emergency alerts that keep our community safe.”

While it posted video of the flood damage around 1:30 p.m., it wasn’t until 8:05 p.m. – nearly 19 hours after the 1:14 a.m. Flash Flood Warning – that Texas Public Radio posted a report looking back on the flood deaths, National Weather Service warnings, and news of the flood’s devastation on Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky.

“NPR has hired million dollar lobbyists to try and convince Congress to keep funneling billion dollar earmarks their way. But the deadly Texas flooding has exposed one of NPR’s main talking points to be a lie,” Media Research Center Vice President for Free Speech Dan Schneider said, refuting the Texas Public Radio’s lobbying post’s claim that it alone provides “Trusted news that keeps you informed” and “Emergency alerts that keep our community safe” that “others don’t”:

“In the middle of storm warnings, the local NPR affiliate in Kerr was posting to their social media followers that it alone provided emergency alerts and news. In fact, NPR was the only local radio station that wasn’t.”

 

This is a synopsis of how it unfolded in Texas: 

1. It took NPR (through Texas Public Radio) 19 hours to post anything about the flooding on its social media pages after the National Weather Service posted its July 3 alert.
 

2. What was NPR/TPR doing in the interim? LOBBYING CONGRESS FOR $1.1 BILLION DOLLARS by asking its Texas listeners to call their Senators to vote against President Trump’s Rescission Bill.
 

3. When the flood hit at 4:03 AM on July 4, instead of providing local news, the NPR affiliate in Kerrville instead aired “Morning Edition” out of Washington, DC. That day, listeners to NPR heard that the just-passed Reconciliation Bill was an “abomination” and that Trump is a liar. MRC has looked but found no evidence that Texas Public Radio interrupted its regularly scheduled programming to provide urgent advisories about the flood.
 

4. MRC investigators learned that 7 local private radio stations jumped into action on July 4th, breaking into their programming to interview the Kerrville Police Department chief information officer. He provided urgent advice to listeners to seek higher ground and provided updates throughout the day. BUT the NPR stations never reached out to him or the Kerrville Police Department for interviews.
 

5. The 7 private stations posted over 70 alerts on their social pages throughout the day, starting at 7:24 AM. It took Texas Public Radio 6 more hours before it posted its first advisory. 
 

6. Reprising FEMA’s disgraceful actions during Hurricane Helene last September, Texas Public Radio also refused to provide any alerts to X users. It instead posted on the left-leaning Bluesky platform as well as Facebook and Instagram. NPR, Texas Public Radio and the NPR affiliates have boycotted X because Elon and Trump labeled them “government-funded media,” which they are. In fact, protecting its taxpayer subsidy took priority over the National Weather Service Alerts on July 3, 2025. 

Remember former Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) who got censured for pulling the fire alarm in the Capitol Building as lawmakers prepared to vote to prevent a government shutdown? He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, paid a $1,000 fine and lost the next Democrat primary.

He’s back.

Bowman, appearing June 25 as a panelist on MSNBC, said, “The reason why heart disease and cancer and obesity and diabetes are bigger in the black community is because of the stress we carry from having to deal with being called the n-word directly or indirectly every day.”

It’s been a tough week for blacks. Whoopi Goldberg of ABC’s “The View” said American blacks would be better off living in Iran:

Goldberg: “Murdering someone for their difference is not good whoever does it. It’s not good.”

(Applause) …

(Co-host) Alyssa Farah Griffin: “I think it’s very different to live in the United States in 2025 than it is to live in Iran.”

Goldberg: “Not if you’re black.”

Goldberg’s level of ignorance is startling even for “The View.”

The Human Freedom Index is a project of the CATO Institute and the Fraser Institute. The index rates a nation’s level of freedom based on several factors including civil and economic freedom, religious liberty, personal security and rule of law. Iran consistently ranks among the most repressive nations in the world.

As for Bowman, where does one start? The stress of being called “the n-word directly or indirectly” makes heart disease, cancer and diabetes “bigger in the black community”?!

Other than in rap music or from black comedians, when was the last time a black person heard the n-word uttered directed at him or her? How is one subjected to the n-word “indirectly”? Is it like secondhand smoke? If someone says the n-word within a two-block radius, is it tantamount to being denied the front seat on a bus, prevented from voting or beaten by a racist cop? Where is the typical black person subjected to the n-word directly or indirectly? At work, at church, in a restaurant, on a bus or at Costco?

As for diabetes, the National Institutes of Health in an article called “Factors contributing to higher incidence of diabetes for black Americans” wrote: “A study (by Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine) found that biological risk factors — including weight and fat around the abdomen — are primarily responsible for higher rates of diabetes for black Americans compared with white Americans. The study suggests that making positive changes in known risk factors, like losing excess weight, can help reduce the racial health disparity for developing diabetes. …

“They found that biological risk factors accounted for most of the health disparity. These factors included a combination of body mass index, waist measurement, fasting glucose levels, lipids, blood pressure, and lung function. Differences between blacks and whites in neighborhood, psychosocial, socioeconomic, and behavioral factors were also linked with diabetes, although to a lesser degree.”

Plenty of studies attribute the disproportionate problem of obesity, particularly among black women, to “systemic racism.” But Thomas Sowell years ago wrote: “The political Left has turned obesity among low-income individuals into an argument that low-income people cannot afford nutritious food, and so have to resort to burgers and fries, pizzas and the like, which are more fattening and less healthful. … Burgers, pizzas, and the like cost more than food that you can buy at a store and cook yourself. If you can afford junk food, you can certainly afford healthier food.”

How does “systemic racism” prevent one from exercising? Why has the problem of obesity gotten worse when, by any measure, the country is markedly less racist than in the past?

As for cancer, the Cleveland Clinic says: “Cancer is a genetic disorder. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s inherited. It happens when genes that manage cell activity mutate (change). They create abnormal cells that divide and multiply, eventually disrupting how your body works.”

The National Cancer Institute says, “Although chronic stress can lead to many health problems, whether it is linked to cancer is not clear.”

But it is certainly clear to Dr. Bowman and his never-ending quest to describe blacks as helpless victims of oppression.