THE DAILY NEWSLETTER - WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2022

Media Winners & Losers

MEDIA WINNER:
Stuart Varney

Fox Business Network anchor Stuart Varney pleaded with former President Donald Trump to stop pushing lies about the 2020 election, and creating a “toxic situation” that voters would rather he avoid.

On Tuesday’s edition of Fox Business Network’s Varney & Co, Varney conducted a phone interview during which the host — who has long been supportive of Trump — pushed back on Trump for "rehashing" the 2020 election, and suggested three separate times that he stop:

"What I hear from a lot of Republicans is that they don’t want you to look back to the 2020 election as rehash it. They want to look forward to what we’re going to do with this economy and this society going forward. What do you say to that?" he asked.

Trump said to watch '2000 Mules' and visit TRUTH social.

"That’s not what people are talking about. People — people don’t want you to do that," said Varney.

Trump said Fox News doesn't want to talk about the truth.

"I’m getting the sense that the voters just don’t want to go back to a chaotic situation or a toxic situation," Varney tried again. "They want to look forward to the future and be positive."

Trump said you can't let people get away with robbing a jewelry store.

The fact that he got nowhere with Trump was a fait accompli. But pressing the issue - Trump's core and only issue, now - was really a valiant effort. And good TV.

MEDIA LOSER:
Candace Owens

Daily Wire host Candace Owens accused billionaire Bill Gates of being the “mastermind” behind the monkeypox outbreak.

Owens brought up the outbreak on Tuesday, saying that it "doesn’t seem that anybody is dying from this, but it doesn’t matter because pretty soon you’ll be able to roll up your sleeve — and say that you did your patriotic duty and got yourself injected.”

She took a detour into smallpox before moving on to Gates.

“Wherever there is a pandemic Bill Gates is sticking his nose in it," she said. "Well, would you believe that for monkeypox, they also ran a simulation in March of 2021 at the Munich security conference. They ran a simulation on reducing the high consequence of biological threat. And in that pandemic preparedness exercise, they talked about an unusual strain of the monkeypox virus, March of 2021.”

“What if the bioterrorist is actually Bill Gates?” she blurted. “What if Bill Gates should be in prison? If we wanna avoid the next pandemic? What if we got together a bunch of people and said, ‘Hey, you know what, actually, you are the universal threats. You guys have been playing germ games.'”

She also floated the theory that the U.S. could lose "sovereignty" to pandemic treaties.

Reading hardly does justice to the impact of hearing this rant yourself.

In the fierce competition out-Alex Jones Alex Jones, Owens is a truly fierce competitor. Her increasingly unhinged raving ought to make even the Daily Wire blush.

The A-Block

Uvalde

By a whopping 2-to-1 margin, Americans say it is “important” to “pass stricter gun laws” in a poll taken after the Buffalo mass shooting, and published the day of the Uvalde, Texas massacre.

It’s a chilling sign of the times that barely enough time passed between last week’s terrifying racist attack in Buffalo and yesterday’s horrific massacre at an elementary school in Texas for a public opinion poll to be conducted.

President Joe Biden addressed the nation about the mass shooting of elementary school children on Tuesday night. Fox & Friends hosts were among those who praised the speech. Tucker Carlson was not.

Morning Joe blasted negative reactions to the president's remarks. And had words for Joe Manchin, too.

CNN's Erica Hill broke down on air, as did Fox's Ainsley Earhardt.

Texan and actor Matthew McConaughey issued an emotional call to action, and Whoopi Goldberg is fed up with thoughts and prayers.

Ben Shapiro expressed support for background checks while Cenk Uygur slammed Democrats.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern talked to Stephen Colbert about her nation's reaction to gun violence - a fascinating conversation. Among American politicians, there was some less engaging debate.

But back to that poll. Respondents were asked “how important, if at all, is it for elected leaders to do the following? Pass stricter gun control laws.”

A full 59 percent said it was either “Very important” (41%) or “Somewhat important” (18%) to pass stricter gun control laws, versus 32 percent who said it was either “Not too important” (13%) or “Not important at all” (19%) to pass stricter gun control laws.

Maybe instead of all those bold names above it's those numbers that should be listened to?

Find latest Uvalde coverage here.


In Other News...

Spotify Allowing Political Ads on Their Platform After Putting Pausing on Them Since 2020

Chris Christie Lauds Kemp Win, Praises Georgia GOP For Not Being 'Willing Participants in the DJT Vendetta Tour'

CPAC Hungary Should Be a Wake Up Call For All Americans Who Care About Freedom

RATINGS: 5/23 - Fox News Sweeps Demo

Must See Clip

Top Gun

Tom Cruise managed to persuade a terrified James Corden into a Top Gun style flight, topped with aerial stunts and a “dog fight.”

“I’m very excited that James is doing this,” Cruise said before the duo’s big adventure on The Late Late Show. “Was he the first late-night show that I asked? Hell no. He was just the first one, the only one, to say yes.”

Joke fear mixed with some genuine terror in their flights - yes, plural. 

“This is absolutely ludicrous," said Corden. "This is the craziest thing — this is the stupidest thing I have ever done.”

It's great TV.

Links We Like

Historians Are Mad at the New York Times, Again. Should They Be?
- Jonathan M. Katz, Slate
Pass and Enforce Red Flag Laws. Now.
- David French, The Dispatch
One in Five Adults Infected in U.S. May Have Long COVID: CDC Study
- Dan Ladden-Hall, Daily Beast
Watch For A Return Of The Ignominious Disinformation Governance Board
- George F. Will, Washington Post
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