THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2025
Our press corps won't tell you about it: We correct ourselves for the second time concerning Jen Psaki's program.
Last evening, she did report and discuss what the president did--what he did for the second straight day. As you can see by clicking this link, her segment started like this at 9:47 Eastern:
PSAKI (12/3/25): Today, Donald Trump doubled down on his disgusting racist attacks against Somali immigrants. And to spare you some of the bile, I'm only going to play part of it. But I think some of this hateful rhetoric from the president of the United States is worth bearing witness to.
As you can see by clicking that link, she then played tape of the president's second-day assault. She then interviewed Rep. Omar, who the president had dismissed as "garbage" the day before, about the fellow's behavior.
As to why the president behaved in this way, it seems to us that he has perhaps been spiraling downward of late. Several medical specialists have recently advanced that thesis, though we'll set that possibility aside for another day.
We remain puzzled by the minimal way the president's disordered behavior was covered on other MS NOW programs. For today, we thought you ought to see what viewers of the nation's most-watched "cable news" show were told about this two-day event.
We take you to the set of The Five, where an all-MAGA panel had been assembled for yesterday's imitation of life. Indeed, the former VJ Kennedy sat in the "liberal" chair. On such days, this ludicrous four-on-one program become a five-to-zero parody of a panel "news" discussion.
A bit of background: The second segment of the show was built out of recent events in Minnesota, starting with the widespread fraud event reported in this lengthy front-page report in Sunday's New York Times:
How Fraud Swamped Minnesota’s Social Services System on Tim Walz’s Watch
The fraud scandal that rattled Minnesota was staggering in its scale and brazenness.
Federal prosecutors charged dozens of people with felonies, accusing them of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from a government program meant to keep children fed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
At first, many in the state saw the case as a one-off abuse during a health emergency. But as new schemes targeting the state’s generous safety net programs came to light, state and federal officials began to grapple with a jarring reality.
Over the last five years, law enforcement officials say, fraud took root in pockets of Minnesota’s Somali diaspora as scores of individuals made small fortunes by setting up companies that billed state agencies for millions of dollars’ worth of social services that were never provided.
From the Blue political / policy perspective, it's a horrible news report. We were struck by the fact that the Times included Governor Walz right there in its headline.
It was the sudden prominence of those fraud prosecutions which led to the president's outbursts this week. But what were viewers of The Five told about those poisonous outbursts themselves?
We can't recommend that you watch the whole segment. The conversation involves the usual fact-challenged inanities performed by co-hosts Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld. Also, a lengthy side-trip about public corruption in Sierra Leone was conducted by co-host Dana Perino.
To watch the whole segment, start here.
Sad! That said, near the end of this imitation of life, what were Red American viewers told about the president's poisonous outbursts? Believe it or not—and with a minor surprise yet to come—this is what viewers now heard:
GUTFELD (12/3/25): Oh, one last thing! It's kind of refreshing to see Trump be able to say that stuff about Omar and not be called all these names, because that whole "identity politics" thing doesn't work any more...
According to Gutfeld, it was "kind of refreshing" to hear the things President Trump had said over the prior two days! To hear him say that Rep. Omar was "garbage." To hear him say that Rep. Omar's friends were "garbage" too!
Yes, that's what this very strange "newsman" said. But now we give you the kicker:
Viewers had never been shown the videotape of the poisonous things the president had said! As you can see if you watch the whole segment, viewers had seen the videotape of Omar's rebuttal to Trump—and Gutfeld went on to criticize her for saying that Trump's remarks were racist, without letting viewers see what he had actually said.
Gutfeld and Watters and Perino oh my! We're all in Alice's Wonderland now, and the timorous Blue American press corps still won't tell you about it!
How is it “racist” to denounce Somalians and their culture? Africa is a big continent composed of 54 nations and inhabited by people of various complexions. If a Somali disliked the U.S. and Americans would that be racism?
ReplyDeleteCould be yes. Could be other reasons of course. But for sure, you a still a bigot.
DeleteAnonymouse 4:40pm, that’s like your telling me that I’m a man. Duly noted (whatev…), but the racist label is coming from Bob. That merits some investigation.
DeleteIf you have to ask....you might be a racist.
DeleteJust sayin'.
Anonymouse 4:44pm, anonymouse logic- exactly. If you question it, you IS it… Again, I’m not questioning anonymouse silliness, I’m questioning Bob’s take.
DeleteBecause the Somalis in question are largely US citizens, many of them born here. I am glad that I could explain, Cecelia. Don't hesitate to ask for help again. It's not a sign of weakness.
DeleteIlya, and they are more than likely to have various complexions. It’s the dislike of a culture, not a race.
DeleteCecelia, it is a generalization about a people who are diverse, not all alike and certainly not as relentlessly negative as Trump portrays them.
DeleteTreating all people in a group as if they were the same as some negative stereotype is bigotry. It is racist because most people from Somalia are black and Trump holds negative stereotypes and views of all black people, regardless of their nationality and other characteristics. (Don't bother bringing up Clarence Thomas or Trump's black tokens, who he doesn't think any better of than other black people.)
Cecelia argues that Trump dislikes the Somalian culture. Trump doesn't know anything about that culture. He couldn't find Somalia on a map, even if you allowed him to read the country labels. To dislike a culture you need to know something about that culture. Trump is the most ignorant man in the country.
DeleteI'll bet Trump couldn't say what language is spoken in Somalia. I'll bet he doesn't know whether Muslims in Somalia are Sunni or Shiite. He has no idea what their culture is, other than believing they must be eating cats and dogs.
Cecelia, your comments here are a farce.
Allright, Cecelia, strictly speaking, Trump's statements were bigoted rather than racist. The charge of racism requires some interpolation from context and Trump's prior behavior. However, once that interpolation is applied, the charge is defensible.
DeleteIlya, so what if they’re US citizens. Many groups live in the US and have their own culture, outlook, and traditions, that are distinct from the larger culture. You can certainly see that as to what’s going on in Europe as to second generation Muslims. To carry that further, is it racist to say white males are bossy? White males think they’re God, etc. My take is that this is an opinion that is not about solely or intrinsically about skin color, strength, intellect, those sort immutable traits. It’s about attitudes, beliefs, traditions. It’s about culture.
DeleteQiB, do we have to pretend that we’re all the same and let everyone into the country? Must we do that? I certainly wouldn’t want Somolis to have to deal with my 95% of my Mississippi relatives.
DeleteCecilia - you ask how is trump calling Somali immigrants, most apparently here legally, "garbage' racist? you choose to characterize his remarks as "denouncing Somalians and their culture.," seeming to imply that there's nothing so bad about that. Seems to me that you are being disingenuous or dense. My view, out of step to some extent with a lot of dems, is that the dems have gone off the rails about "racism." It exists, but there is great exaggeration. But Somalis actually are black. Denouncing an entire group, who happen to black, for the actions of a few - lends itself to the charge of "racism." Would Trump call the entire Russian population of the world "garbage" - or the Germans or French or Canadians? [who knows what will be however]. Whether or not his calling the entire Somali people "garbage" is "racist", that is a vile thing for a POTUS to utter, and extremely stupid. Seems you are deflecting in your comment. And what is your thing about the shape of Somalis' heads? An attempt at humor?
DeleteAs previously stated, the charge of racism requires some interpretation of context.
DeleteWould Trump have said the same things about immigrants from a country made up of white people? I see no evidence that would ever happen.
AC/MA, by the same token, has Trump denounced Ethiopian culture? Kenyan culture? Angolan culture? They share continent and are not Caucasian. As to my observation concerning Somoli cranial shape…I’ve been informed that there is a medical explanation for it. Now go tip-toe thru the tulips all your life in order to avoid being denounced by politically motivated people who don’t really merit that concern.
DeleteFor me, the tells are the statements like these: "They destroyed our country," or "I don't want them in our country."
DeleteWho does the president refer to when he talks about "our" country. Yes, one could guess that he means native born Americans. I don't think that's what he meant though.
Somerby is a racist.
ReplyDeleteIf he bothered to look into the case (and he may have and is being coy), he could have made a vastly different post today.
Here are the facts of the case:
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The Feeding Our Future fraud wasn’t designed by Somalis.
The mastermind was Aimee Bock, a white Christian woman and nonprofit director who controlled approvals, paperwork, and oversight failures.
Of the ~78 people charged, only six Somali-Americans have been convicted/plead guilty, and even those cases vary widely. Some knowingly committed fraud, but others believed they were participating in a legitimate federal program until it became clear the numbers didn’t add up. Several pleaded guilty because they were advised to do so once the system, designed by others, had pulled them in.
The structure of the scheme — created and normalized by non-Somali leadership — fits a well-known pattern where immigrant business owners are recruited into systems they neither design nor fully understand.
So framing the case as “Somali fraud” is factually wrong and racially inflammatory. It erases who actually created the scheme, who controlled the money flows, who normalized the paperwork practices, and who benefited most.
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The NYT reporting is incompetent and uses classic framing techniques that exaggerate immigrant culpability and downplay structural or white-collar leadership roles; the NYT has a long, well documented pattern of putting their thumbs on the scale in developing narratives about immigrant communities (Chinese laundries, Italian mutual aid societies, Jewish charitable networks, Hispanic workers, etc), and this case fits that template perfectly.
In reality, this scheme was engineered by non-Somalis; a handful of Somalis were at worst intermediaries or low level participants, many did not understand the paperwork architecture controlled by the ringleader - a White Christian woman. The NYT collapses all the nuance into a sweeping cultural insinuation and moral panic, as they typically do.
Somerby does not challenge or criticize the NYT for its racial framing, just repeats it, because it might hurt Dems.
And then with a bit of sleight of hand, Somerby softens Trump and the Republicans' reaction by explaining it and rationalizing it to some extent. Somerby tries to reroute concern over racism to mere procedural criticism of cable news media.
Anonymouse 6:20pm, where you been?
Delete