VOTERS: Incoming president does it again!

THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 2024

This is the discourse we've chosen: "Th[is] darkest evening of the year?"

These "darkest evenings" are rather common at this point in time. Yesterday morning, in the second half of the 10 o'clock hour, the broadcast team at the Fox News Channel got over its skis just a bit.

There's certainly nothing new about that! But as you can see by clicking this link, here's what was said by correspondent Alexis McAdams, starting at 10:39 a.m. Eastern:

MCADAMS (1/1/25): According to federal sources, the suspect drove a truck with that Texas license plate. This is just coming into our newsroom. This is from Griff Jenkins and David Spunt, working their federal sources on this.

The suspect drives that truck, with a Texas license plate, right through Bourbon Street. According to their sources to Spunt and Jenkins, this person came through Eagle Pass, Texas, two days ago, OK?

So said McAdams, by now at 10:40 a.m. By now, it seems that one part of what she said was simply wrong. But it's perfectly clear that McAdams had ventured out over her skis.

As every Fox News viewer would know, Eagle Pass is a south Texas border community. Especially at Fox, Eagle Pass has played a leading role in the general immigration story in the course of the past year. 

McAdams had now said that the perpetrator of the murders in New Orleans had "come through Eagle Pass" just two days before, according to federal sources.

The insinuation was fairly obvious. At that point, Fox News Channel anchor Molly Line let the insinuation pass. 

Elsewhere, down in the Sunshine State, someone else may have leaped at the bait. Eight minutes after McAdams' report, an incoming president offered this post on the inaptly named Truth Social site: 

INCOMING PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP (1/1/25): When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil!

So posted the incoming president. His post drove the notion that the perpetrator, whose identity was still unknown, must have been a terrorist—an illegal immigrant?—who had recently entered the country across the southern border.

Needless to say, it could have turned out to be true! But as the matter has turned out, it seems that it actually wasn't.

As it seems to have turned out, the perpetrator was an American citizen, born and raised in Beaumont. But in this way, an incoming president spread an insinuation far and wide. 

As the new year dawned over our flailing nation, this was again a major part of the national discourse we've chosen. 

By 10:48 a.m., the Fox News Channel's David Spunt was clarifying the matter. By clicking here, you can see what Spunt now said:

SPUNT: So we're hearing that the vehicle was traced to coming across from Mexico into the United States from Eagle Pass, Texas two days ago. To be clear, we don't one hundred percent know that this man, and we do know that the suspect was a man, was the person driving that across the border. That is unclear at this point.

They didn't know it "one hundred percent?" In fact, they didn't know it at all! But by now, the insinuation had gone forth to the nation. An incoming president seemed to have taken the insinuation and run.

Rather plainly, the insinuation lurking in McAdams' report advanced preferred Storyline. The incoming president seemed to run with the insinuation as millions of people looked on.

This is part of the discourse we've chosen as we begin the year in this, our flailing nation. In his instant post, the incoming president seemed to be driving the latest clown car. For many voters in Red America, this is one of the clown cars they've chosen over the past dozen years.

(We're dating back to the start of the clown car claims, broadcast on Fox by Donald J. Trump, about President Obama's imagined place of birth. Greta van Susteren—for the record, she and her husband were Rachel's drinking pals—served as the "caddy" for Trump's endless inane birther claims.)

Many voters in Red America have chosen to ride in that car. But what about the various cars those of us in Blue America have possibly chosen to ride in?

Have we, the voters of Bue America, chosen to rise in some clown cars too? Has some such lack of discernment been a part of the discourse we've chosen?

Those of us in Blue America have been slow to spot the fact that we've engaged in errors of discernment too.  In Tuesday's report, we offered a glimpse of the darkness which can even lurk in Blue American hearts. 

According to experts, such occasional hearts of darkness are part of our species' basic wiring. The clown cars which have carried us to this place are simply part of the deal.

In our view, we Blues have also been riding in clown cars over the past many years. Next week, as the new year unfolds, we plan to suggest some possibilities for you.

The incoming president has been this way for years. He's one of the clown cars we've chosen.

That said, what about us over here? Isit possible that there have been ways in which we Blues have chosen to ride in such cars? Have there been ways in which our own imperfect discernment has probably driven voters away, may have quite probably cost us votes in this past year's narrow election?

Lori Mosura's a skid mark, some voters have said. She needs to get it good and hard! She needs to be culled from the herd!

Tomorrow: Whatever seems to come next