STATE OF THE (DIS)UNION: Even before Jones interrupted...

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2026

...Khanna oddly misspoke: Not long ago, the so-called Big Weekend Show was a virtual afterthought in the Fox News Channel's cavalcade of corporate messaging programs.

As the leading authority on the program recalls, the show had debuted, in a one-hour format, and under a slightly different name, in February 2021. Things dragged along for four years.

Big Weekend was expanded to a two-hour format in January 2025, then to three hours last September. This was part of the channel's decision to eliminate hours of "news reporting" in favor of an increase in group propaganda shows. 

The channel engineered this adjustment after President Trump was elected for the second time in 2024. Last September, the channel also announced that The Big Weekend Show would have regular co-hosts for the first time, with Tomi Lahren and Johnny Joey Jones cast in those roles. 

Last Saturday, it was this potent three-hour show which attempted to tell Red America how to view the Supreme Court's 6-3 decision—its to throw a large portion of the president's prevailing tariffs onto the junkheap of history. The program went on the air at 5 p.m. Three minutes later, Secretary Bessent, on videotape, had made the new situation almost impossibly clear. 

As viewers could see on the videotape, here's what the fellow had said: 

BESSENT: Six justices simply ruled that "Aye-Eepah" [phonetic] authorities cannot be used to raise even one dollar of revenue. This administration will invoke alternative legal authorities to replace the "Aye-Eepah" tariffs. 

Treasury’s estimates show that the use of Section 122 authority, combined with potentially enhanced Section 232 and Section 301 tariffs, will result in virtually unchanged tariff revenue in 2026.

Few things could be more clear! As we noted yesterday, co-host Jones was soon explaining the president's inevitable greatness as it had been manifested in this episode:

JONES (2/21/26): I can't help but laugh at Josh Shapiro...

You know, [the Democrats] play this game that's— They're not very good at it, I don't think. 

President Trump is smarter than they are. He's playing checkers, they're playing— Or, he's playing chess, they're playing checkers. 

Trump had outsmarted the Dems again! The Democrats had been playing checkers. He had been playing chess!

Along the way, co-host Lahren had littered the twelve-minute pseudo-discussion with descriptions of the Democrats' horrible motives in opposing the miraculous tariffs—the bad faith Democrats had revealed in the course of their refusal to root for the United States against the rest of the world. 

In this way, the corporate messaging was broadcast through Red America as the channel worked to maximize corporate profits even as it undermines the possibility of maintaining the American project.

So it goes as this channel's messenger children bend themselves to the scripted corporate will. But as we noted yesterday, something very unusual happened on Sunday's Big Weekend Show.

On this campus, our youthful analysts were surprised but heartened by what this development. During Sunday's 6 o'clock hour, co-host Jones teased, then later introduced an extremely unusual segment:

JONES (2/22/26): Joining us now is Congressman Ro Khanna, a member of the House Armed Services and House Oversight Committees. 

Congressman, thank you for joining us. We don't get a lot of Democrats on here, wo when we do, we want to treat you with respect. 

Say what? Rep. Khanna (D-CA) has been prominent on MS NOW in recent months, largely due to his tireless work with respect to the attempt to engineer the legally mandated release of the Epstein files. 

In a rare bit of bipartisan conduct, Khanna has joined with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in his work on that project. Now, Khanna was actually appearing on The Big Weekend Show!

It was a very unusual cable event. It didn't go remarkably well, but if we the people are ever going to find a way "back out of all this now too much for us," it will have to come from events like this—from events in which the two Americas, Red and Blue, attempt to speak to each other.

Inevitably, the current state of our nation's (dis)union makes such undertakings hard. Consider what happened when this prominent Blue American congressman showed up on this Red American messaging program.

We start with a mutual bungle. Khanna had apparently been invited onto the show to discuss the so-called SAVE (or SAVE America) Act. This strange first exchange occurred:

JONES: Do you believe that only American citizens should vote in American elections?

KHANNA: Yes, of course. But I don't think there's some widespread problem of those who are undocumented or who don't have papers voting. By the way, there are criminal laws for that. Enforce the criminal laws. If someone is voting who is not an American citizen, then they should be prosecuted.

The problem I have with the SAVE Act is that it unfairly puts a burden on women. Women are going to, if they've changed their last name, have to go amend their birth certificate or go get a passport, and it unfairly puts a burden on students. How is it that hunting and fishing licenses count, but student IDs don't count for kids?

JONES: That's a great point!

Really? "That's a great point?"

Khanna's statement about married women who changed their names could have been the start of a real discussion about one problem with this Republican "Voter ID" proposal. But his second point—his statement about hunting and fishing licenses—seems to have nothing to do with this sweeping new proposal.

That complaint seemed to be hanging around from earlier Voter ID debates—debates within which it constituted a perfectly valid Democratic complaint. That said, hunting and fishing licenses play no role in this new GOP proposal, but Khanna instantly brought them up.

Co-host Jones seemed to have no idea! "That's a great point," he strangely said.

Moments later, Khanna turned to hunting and fishing again. Briefly, a bit of context:

The SAVE Act has passed in the House, but it's widely believed to have no chance in the Senate. Perhaps for that reason, it's rarely discussed on Blue America's cable news shows.

Meanwhile, on the Fox News Channel, the SAVE Act is constantly cited. But in the absence of Blue American guests, the valid objections to its provisions are simply never mentioned. 

Instead, the act is treated as an unobjectionable proposal for a national "Voter ID" requirement—and "Voter ID," generically presented, polls extremely well. Messenger stooges on Fox will thereby cite Democratic opposition as proof that the Democrats are plotting to let "illegals" vote:

In the absence of any coherent statement in opposition to the proposal, this attack on Those Fiendish Democrats Today will seem to make perfect sense.

So it goes when two large nations, Red and Blue, observe years of strict self-separation. In this particular case, a genuine oddity occurred:

Given a chance to voice his objections to the proposal, Khanna emitted a genuine blooper. But perhaps because he only knew the standard Fox scripts about this proposal, Jones seemed to think that he had just heard his Blue American guest articulate a "great point!"

From there, things went straight downhill. Jones continued to question Khanna—and now, the instant interruptions and overtalking began. To see this overtalking in action, you can (and should!) click here. 

Co-host Jones had pledged to show respect, but that dream was quickly deferred. Quite suddenly, Jones seemed to be showing that he could play tough with his Blue American guest.

It's very, very, very rare to see a guest like Rep. Khanna on a Red American messaging program like The Big Weekend Show. On Sunday, a startling first attempt was made, and the state of the nation's vast (dis)union quickly swam into view.

Jones knows his tribal messaging points. Khanna didn't seem completely up to speed with respect to the topic at hand.

(Did he know that was going to be the topic? We have no idea.)

Tonight, a major source of the nation's disunion comes full-blown center stage. At Fox, we hope they try this sort of thing with Rep. Khanna (and others) again. 

The bulk of Sunday's nine-minute segment was in fact perfectly civil. At one point, a good solid laugh was shared by Khanna and the Red American panel.

Can a large modern nation expect to survive in a state of perpetual self-segregation, half Blue and half Red? We hope that Fox tries this format again. There's no other way out of the mess into which we the tribals have fallen.

Tomorrow: "Fixed ideas" v. union?