Connect with us

News

‘Feels Like’: Fox Host Spins Conspiracy Theory of Government Network ‘Trying to Stop Trump’

Published

on

Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo is spinning a baseless conspiracy theory, saying that to her, “it just feels like” there is a network attached to U.S. government law enforcement agencies, along with the media, “trying to stop” Donald Trump, before she asked a sitting U.S. Senator to “stop the free press.”

Bartiromo in her Wednesday interview with U.S. Senator Rand Paul went as far as to suggest top tech firms including Google and Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, had intentionally censored a photo of Donald Trump taken just after the assassination attempt earlier this month. Her remarks led the Kentucky Republican lawmaker to explain the First Amendment to the veteran journalist after she asked that Congress “do something” to prevent tech platforms from censoring certain posts or information.

“It just feels like there is a network in place in all these corners, whether it be government, FBI, Secret Service or media, that is trying to stop Trump,” declared Bartiromo, a staunch supporter of the ex-president.

Bartiromo, who has been called a “conspiracy theorist,” was named in Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox Corp. A Washington Post 2020 profile noted she had employed “the parlance of election conspiracy theorists,” and noted that Bartiromo “was one of the few to offer her solid approval of Trump’s disastrous August 2017 news conference in which he insisted there were ‘some very fine people on both sides’ of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.”

READ MORE: ‘Love, Support, Golf Memberships’: Eric Trump Outraged Over Cousin’s Kamala Harris Endorsement

“I mean,” Baritromo continued Tuesday, “look at, look at what Trump said about Meta and Google and, you know, go try to Google ‘Trump assassination attempt.’ President Trump said that Meta and Google are censoring information about the assassination attempt on his life, saying that they made it virtually impossible to find pictures or anything about the heinous act. Google responded to the allegations and claimed that its auto complete search tool was not showing results for the Trump assassination attempt.”

“It says there was no manual action taken and that its systems have protections against auto complete predictions associated with political violence. It also says that its chatbot Gemini refusing to answer questions about the assassination attempt because of a previous policy which restricted questions on election related issues.”

Bartiromo then sounded stunned that Google could deem the attempted assassination of an ex-president running for re-election, speaking to supporters at a campaign rally, “election-related.”

“Are you serious?” she asked. “This is election related? Now, an assassination attempt on a former president is election-related? Meanwhile, Meta says it’s working to update its AI assistant after it was telling users that the assassination attempt was fictional. Facebook also says that it was an error to censor the iconic photo of Trump pumping his fist in the air after getting shot. We have that photo. There it is. Why were they censoring this photo? Senator?”

Senator Paul responded, declaring, “well, well, all I can say is, thank God for Elon Musk, who exposed how terribly biased these people were. And by taking over Twitter. Twitter now is an objective platform where you can post things now.”

Last year The Atlantic declared Twitter “is now a right-wing social network,” while Foreign Policy warned, “Elon Musk’s Twitter Is Becoming a Sewer of Disinformation.”

READ MORE: What Project 2025 Shutting Down ‘Policy’ Operations Actually Means: Expert

As the interview continued, Bartiromo appeared increasingly agitated.

“You’re an elected official. Can’t you stop the so-called free press from censoring information and do something to ensure that these companies are in fact, you know, living up to the letter of free press?”

“The First Amendment’s very clear,” Senator Paul replied, “that Congress, government shall make no law restricting freedom of press or freedom of speech. It doesn’t say that private entities, so for example, The New York Times doesn’t have to print my op-eds. Neither does The Washington Post. In fact, they really don’t ever print my opinion. And they have a right to, it’s a privately-owned newspaper. It’s the same way with social media.”

“But you can leave, and you can force them to expand their horizons if they you vote with your dollars and go somewhere else. And so this is the way the marketplace works. But if we set up a government entity to say to Google and to Facebook, ‘you have to publish this,’ my fear is that people who will populate that government entity making these speech decisions will be people who end up being people who don’t like my opinion either. I don’t want the government involved or any kind of committee involved from government with choosing and enforcing free speech, because I think they’ll just enforce it another rule on speech that I’m not particularly in favor of,” Paul explained.

“OK, well,” Bartiromo asked, “what about taking away their freedom of liability, for anything? What about that? Is there nothing you can do as an elected official to try to make sure these companies are reporting truth?”

“If you let people sue Facebook because someone said they don’t like someone else on their Facebook post, it’s going to destroy the internet. So liability protection is important for the internet to work. Look, I don’t like their left-wing politics and I oppose them, I speak out, I boycott these people, and I’ll do it to my last breath. But I don’t want the government involved with breaking up big tech. If you break up our big tech, guess who takes over” China’s big tech. So I’m not for breaking up American big tech.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: Trump Flails as Fox News Forces Him to Defend Picking Vance: ‘He’s Not Against Anything’

 

There's a reason 10,000 people subscribe to NCRM. You can get the news before it breaks just by subscribing, plus you can learn something new every day.
Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment
 
 

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

News

‘Is Canada Next?’ Ex-Trump Official Says Greenland Threat Worse Than Imagined

Published

6 hours ago

on

January 19, 2026

By

A former top Trump official is warning that President Donald Trump’s threats to Greenland are worse than could be imagined, and wonders if he will stop there or target another close U.S. ally, like Canada, next.

John Bolton, who served as Trump’s National Security Adviser during the first Trump administration, told NewsNation that the “damage that Donald Trump is doing to America’s reputation, to the trust and good faith and reliance, our European allies and friends around the world have on us is just impossible to state.”

He called it “extraordinary” to “threaten the invasion of a NATO ally, to seize by force a territory from a democracy.”

“The impact in Europe,” he said, “you cannot calculate how bad this is for us.”

READ MORE: ‘Dictators’ Tea Party’: Trump’s Board of Peace Ridiculed as New Details Revealed

Trump has ramped up his threats to acquire Greenland, and has refused to commit to not using military force to take control of the semi-autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Bolton added, “if you want to rip up the NATO alliance, if you want to convince every other American ally around the world — Japan, South Korea, Australia — that we can’t be trusted, go ahead and use military force against Denmark in Greenland.”

“Go ahead and threaten your best friends and allies with retaliatory tariffs, because they just won’t give in,” he continued. “This is so counterproductive for the United States that it’s gonna take years to repair the damage that Donald Trump is doing, and none of it will do anything for the security of Greenland or the NATO alliance.”

“Well,” he added, “consider what it means for the United States to invade an ally like Denmark. Is Canada next? Shall we invade Great Britain? How about Spain?”

Bolton asked, “what is it that gives Trump the idea that the only way to deal with one of the friendliest countries in the world toward America, for 250 years, is to threaten military force?”

READ MORE: ‘25th Amendment Territory’: Critics Warn Trump Impeachment Is ‘Not Enough’

 

Image via Reuters 

Continue Reading

News

‘Dictators’ Tea Party’: Trump’s Board of Peace Ridiculed as New Details Revealed

Published

7 hours ago

on

January 19, 2026

By

The rollout for President Donald Trump’s new Board of Peace, which has drawn controversy and is facing resistance, does not appear to be going smoothly. The American president wants national leaders who join to donate at least $1 billion within the first year to become a permanent member. According to reports, Trump would be chairman for life, the organization could be filled with authoritarian leaders, and it is being seen as a possible rival to the United Nations.

Already, French President Emmanuel Macron, who appears to be leading the charge against Trump in Europe, reportedly has declined to join.

“The body was originally conceived as part of the U.S. president’s push to create a new governance framework for the shattered Palestinian enclave in the wake of Israel’s devastating two-year offensive against Hamas,” The Financial Times reported.

“The Board of Peace has had a rough landing,” reported Bloomberg News’ UK political editor Alex Wickham, noting that “it’s been criticized by Israel, questioned by Europe and has Russia’s friends celebrating.”

READ MORE: ‘25th Amendment Territory’: Critics Warn Trump Impeachment Is ‘Not Enough’

“World leaders were blindsided and bewildered by Trump’s demand they pay $1 billion for permanent membership, sources say,” Wickham noted. “European allies are working to modify the terms and coordinate a response, sources say. They are trying to persuade Arab leaders to help lobby Trump for changes.”

As chairman, Trump would have the ability to add or remove member nations, veto the board’s decisions and cast tie-breaking votes, and create or dissolve committees.

Critics are blasting Trump’s proposed Board of Peace.

Daily Mail UK columnist Andrew Neil said it will probably be Trump’s “most radical step yet to replace the post-WW2 global order. It will also be quite the dictators’ tea party. Putin, Lukashenko (Belarus tyrant) and the dictator of Kazakhstan have all been asked to join!!”

Fox News’ Jessica Tarlov remarked, “The board of peace stars dictators apparently.”

The Wall Street Journal’s chief foreign-affairs correspondent, Yaroslav Trofimov, observed, “Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ looks very much like a plan to replace the UN Security Council with an imperial court of vassals in which he is chairman for life, even after leaving the White House, with veto over every decision and the sole right to designate a successor. And a $1 billion fee for aspiring permanent members.”

Former chief White House ethics attorney Richard Painter wrote, “Almost 75,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in this war, and now we are auctioning off seats on a Gaza ‘Board of Peace’. For a Middle East peace policy, this is pathetic.”

READ MORE: Europe Divorcing America Now Seen as ‘Inevitable’: Report

 

Image via Reuters

Continue Reading

News

‘25th Amendment Territory’: Critics Warn Trump Impeachment Is ‘Not Enough’

Published

10 hours ago

on

January 19, 2026

By

President Donald Trump’s latest shot across the bow—a letter to the Prime Minister of Norway that critics say carries an implied threat of war over Greenland following his failure to receive the Nobel Peace Prize — has once again prompted calls for invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.

“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” Trump wrote in his message to Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

“Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway?” Trump asked. “There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.”

Norway is separate from Denmark, which governs Greenland, and the government of Norway does not award the Nobel Peace Prize — as many critics have pointed out. Trump reportedly believes that the Norwegian government “totally” controls who is awarded the coveted prize.

READ MORE: Europe Divorcing America Now Seen as ‘Inevitable’: Report

“Even by Trump’s standards, this letter is so dangerous and so delusional that there is no longer any question that the president is mentally ‘unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,’ as laid out in the 25th Amendment to the Constitution,” wrote Janna Brancolini at The Daily Beast. “Removal under the 25th Amendment might not be politically likely, but it’s a constitutional tool that must be seriously discussed. To do otherwise would be to indulge the dangerous alternative reality that Trump and his supporters are so desperate to construct.”

“The president is, simply put, not a well man. He subsists on a diet of fast food and aspirin, stays up until the wee hours of the night doom-scrolling on social media, and spent Christmas day rage-posting on his Truth Social platform,” Brancolini added. “This is why impeachment is not enough.”

Trump’s letter was so extreme that European officials were circulating a meme of the American president’s letter, written in crayon, as Alternet reported.

But in the U.S., critics including elected officials are calling for the 25th Amendment or other acknowledgment of what they say is the president’s incapacitation.

“These are the ramblings of a man who has lost touch with reality,” wrote U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) in response to the Trump letter. “He isn’t ok. He’s degraded significantly in the last year and he’s about to get us into a war with our allies.”

READ MORE: Anti-Gay Bias Surges ‘Sharply’ — Even Among These Least Expected Groups: Report

“Invoke the 25th Amendment,” urged U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA).

“I don’t see how you can be a serious person and not find this extremely worrisome,” observed U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI). “He is not stable at all and his reality is warped. He was always a bit like this of course but now he’s 80.”

“This letter, and the fact that the president directed that it be distributed to other European countries, should trigger a bipartisan congressional inquiry into presidential fitness,” commented Professor of Medicine and Surgery Jonathan Reiner, a CNN medical analyst.

“Trump‘s new gigantic temper tantrum over Norway is deep into 25th Amendment territory,” remarked the Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson. “Hell, at this point? 25th Admt territory is far in the rearview mirror and we are descending further into madness by the moment.”

Former Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh simply urged, “25th Amendment. Now.”

READ MORE: ‘Unconstitutional Conspiracy’: Judge Blasts Trump Administration Officials

 

Image via Reuters

 

 

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2020 AlterNet Media.