AMERICAN DISCOURSE: As Perino reassured Red America...

MONDAY, JULY 7, 2025

...Blue America heard something quite different: As of last Wednesday afternoon, the House of Representatives still hadn't passed the GOP megabill.

The House would pass the bill the next day. On the Fourth of July, as originally planned, President Trump would sign the bill into law.

For now, it was 5 p.m. on Wednesday, July 2. On a major Fox News Channel program, a panel of five like-minded performers were mocking Democratic claims about the contents of the bill.

The program was The Five. For better or worse—quite often, for worse—The Five is the most-watched program in the American "cable news" firmament.

For whatever reason, there was no liberal, progressive or nominal Democrat on the five-member panel this day. Lawrence Jones, the all-knowing co-host of Fox & Friends, sat in the (nominal) liberal chair. 

That meant that all five panelists would be giving voice to various Fox News Channel talking points. This was last Wednesday's lineup:

The Five: Wednesday, July 2, 2025
Emily Compagno: co-host, Outnumbered
Lawrence Jones: co-host, Fox & Friends
Johnny Joey Jones: Fox News contributor
Dana Perino: regular co-host, The Five
Greg Gutfeld: regular co-host, The Five

For better or worse, those were the players on the Mudville Five that day.

The program's first segment was devoted to UPenn's official statement that it had erred in allowing Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, to take part in female college swimming competition. The segment ran above this (accurate) chyron:

UPENN TO BAN TRANS ATHLETES FROM WOMEN'S SPORTS

That was the opening segment. In the program's second segment, all five panelists mocked Democratic complaints about the contents of the megabill. 

When it came time to describe the bill's contents, here's part of what was said:

GUTFELD (7/2/25): [The Democrats] are the human version of hysterical tweets...They say, "Oh my God, you're cutting Medicaid! You're throwing, you're throwing the poor and needy"—

No, no, no! These are young, able-bodied people, and illegals. You know, this isn't a free buffet for people who could afford to pay for it. So enough with that.

[...]

PERINO: So on the health car front, Joey—every time a Democrat goes on TV, they add two to three million more to how many people are going to lose their health care. It's 7.8 million people that would be required to do these work requirements, and it's illegal immigrants. 

"No. no, no," Gutfeld said, rejecting the claim that truly needy people could end up losing their Medicaid coverage under terms of the GOP bill. 

As she introduced the segment, Perino had ridiculed the way major Dems were all posting "the same Bat-signal talking points on X, blaming [the Senate bill] for allegedly taking health care away from Americans."

According to Gutfeld and Perino, it seemed that the only Medicaid recipients who could lose their coverage were young, able-bodied people who were refusing to work. People like that would lose their coverage, and so would illegal immigrants.

As the segment continued, Perino continued her throw to Joey Johnny Jones. He began by describing the widespread fraud committed by recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance in his native Dalton, Georgia.

(The widespread fraud within that program had long been committed by "the people I love and that raised me," Jones now sadly said.)

So said Jones, painting a picture of widespread fraud within that federal program. As he continued, he then seemed to discuss President Trump's pledge concerning Medicaid coverage—except he seemed to think that the panel was discussing coverage under Medicare, a different federal program:

JONES: ...The sentence was, "I'm not going to cut Medicare—Medicaid. Medicare! 

The sentence should have been, "I'm not going to cut Medicare to people who prove, who can prove that they deserve it."

According to Jones, that's what President Trump should have said. More specifically, Jones seemed to think that that was the actual policy found in the megabill.

(To assess what Jones said, you'll have to watch the videotape yourself. To our ear, he seemed to think the panel was talking about Medicare coverage. Such cluelessness is not uncommon within the pseudo-discussions which form the bulk of this influential program.)

At any rate, so it went as Red America's viewers were reassured about the "Bat-signal talking-points" the Democrats had all been posting—about the stupid claims the Dems had been making about this part of the GOP bill. 

No one was going to lose Medicaid coverage except able-bodied adults who refused to work, along with illegal immigrants. Or at least, so it seemed as Gutfeld, Perino and Jones discussed this part of the GOP bill.

For the record, the messaging about illegal immigrants had been common in Red America for months by this time. Almost surely, that explains calls to C-Span's Washington Journal like the one we transcribed as part of our June 30 report.

The previous caller had voiced concern about people losing their Medicaid coverage. This next caller instantly said that there was nothing to worry about. 

The GOP bill was going to dump "illegals" from the program. this caller said. he bill was going to dump "illegals" and no one else:

MODERATOR (6/29/25): Kelly, in Clemmons, North Carolina, on the line for Republicans. Good morning, Kelly!

KELLY IN NORTH CAROLINA: Hi, Tammy! Well, I want to tell that man right there that his prayers have already been answered. Because they're not cutting Social Security, they're not cutting Medicare, and they're not cutting Medicaid. 

They are reforming Medicaid, and the way the cuts would be are not real "cuts." They are no more illegals being able to use them. That's where the cuts are coming from, OK? All you people who are American citizens, you will still be getting everything you were getting...

I just want you all to know there's nothing to worry about. You are listening to propaganda, and it's all propaganda from the left. Stop listening to it, you're hurting yourselves. They are trying to make you in fear. Have faith, not fear, and God bless you all.

MODERATOR: That was Kelly in North Carolina...

"All you people who are American citizens, you will still be getting everything you were getting," this C-Span caller said. In line with standard C-Span practice, the moderator made no attempt to question or critique the caller's presentation.

As of today, the megabill has been passed by the Senate and the House, and it's been signed into law. We will now see, or will perhaps fail to see, what its effects will be.

The field of play is this:

We American citizens now live in two separate nations. As we inhabit our separate domains, we hear vastly different accounts of major policy issues.

Last Wednesday afternoon, the five players on our nation's most-watched "cable news" show were mocking the bogus talking points which were comically being churned by the ridiculous Democrats. But as this messaging went out to Red America, people living in Blue America were hearing a vastly different set of claims about the likely effects of the bill.

People in the two Americas were hearing vastly different sets of claims about this high-profile bill. We think of Lincoln' portrait of an earlier pair of Americas as the Civil War approached:

Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. 

At that time, the two Americas were drawing vastly different conclusions even from the words of the Bible! Today, a different pair of Americas are emitting vastly different claims about this major bill.

Dana Perino is saying one thing. Major voices in Blue America are making claims which are vastly different.

As we launch a week in which we'll explore the shape of the broken American discourse, we leave you today with a question which may seem peculiar:

Vastly different claims are being made. How do you know who's right?

Tomorrow: What Compagno said