STATE OF THE (DIS)UNION: Ro Khanna visits The Big Weekend Show!

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2026

Grant sits down with Lee: The far-flung state of the disunion had held through the rest of the weekend. 

How widespread is the current (dis)union? For one example, consider the dueling approaches adopted by different arms of This Murdoch Empire Today. 

The state of disunion remains so strong that major arms of that powerful empire can't even agree with each other! Late last Friday afternoon, even as The Five were happily clowning, the Wall Street Journal editorial board was already in print saying this:

Trump Demeans Himself as He Attacks the Supreme Court

President Trump owes the Supreme Court an apology—to the individual Justices he smeared on Friday and the institution itself. Mr. Trump doubtless won’t offer one, but his rant in response to his tariff defeat at the Court was arguably the worst moment of his Presidency.

Granted Mr. Trump is angry that the Court voted 6-3 to overturn his signature “emergency” tariff policy. Other Presidents have criticized the Court when they didn’t like a ruling. But Mr. Trump lit into the Justices who voted against him as traitors bought by foreign interests.

[...]

He called the liberals a “disgrace to our nation.” But he heaped particular vitriol on the three conservatives. They “think they’re being ‘politically correct,’ which has happened before, far too often, with certain members of this Court,” Mr. Trump said. “When, in fact, they’re just being fools and lapdogs for the RINOs and the radical left Democrats—and . . . they’re very unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution. It’s my opinion that the Court has been swayed by foreign interests.”

This is ugly even by Mr. Trump’s standards...

And so on from there.

So spoke the Journal wing of the Murdoch empire. But over on the Fox News Channel, a vastly different story was being told. 

By Saturday evening, the greatness of the president's brilliance was being clumsily affirmed by the four messenger children on the Fox News Channel's so-called Big Weekend Show.

At 5 p.m., the children opened the show with a trademark non-discussion discussion of the Court's ruling, and on where things go from there. 

By 5:04, new co-host Tomi Lahren was reporting that Democrats oppose the tariffs because they refuse to "root for the United States of America against the rest of the world." 

(Referring to Republicans who oppose the tariffs, she said this: "I can actually see your point.")

So said co-host Lahren. At 5:09, new co-host Johnny Joey Jones managed to bring it all home. We're cutting this down a bit for purposes of clarity, but here's what Lahren's co-host said, seeming to be speaking of the Dems:

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

You know, they 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. 

President Trump has been playing chess; the Democrats are playing checkers! After an initial stumble, that's what the co-host said.

(Co-host Lahren hotly continued, moving again to assessments of motive. "Why don't you want America to win for once?" she hotly asked, addressing the Democrats. "They just can't do it," she now heatedly said.)

In short, the state of the (dis)union was strong, even within these high-profile arms of The Murdoch Empire. But then, dear God! Here came (the tiniest hint of) the sun! We suddenly flashed on sacred Keats in one of his most famous poems!

All of a sudden, here came a hint of the sun! Last evening, on that same Big Weekend Show, an extremely rare event took place. 

It happened during the 6 o'clock hour. Breaking every rule in the modern "two Americas" book, co-host Jones shocked the world, suddenly saying this:

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? Ro Khanna, a very high-profile figure on Blue America's cable news channel, was appearing as a guest on The Big Weekend Show! A nine-minute segment followed, principally focused on two topics—the so-called SAVE Act. but also the current partial government shutdown.

Alas! We'd say that Khanna's performance was amazingly poor; Jones' attempt to show respect may have been marginally worse. So it goes when warring parties make a halting first step at interacting in the public square again.

Khanna was disappointingly bad; Jones may have been worse. Still, we pray that such meetings will take place again and again and again. The participants made that very suggestion as the segment ended. 

Tomorrow, we'll walk you through what was said during the segment in question. The fellow citizens even shared a bit of a laugh at one encouraging point!

(To watch the full segment, click this.)

Tomorrow night, the president is going to speak—and the ongoing state of disunion is likely to be strong. The Justices are scheduled to be sitting with the soul of the late Bob Uecker, right there in the front row!

Tomorrow: Generals Grant and Lee engage in a halting first step

Keats speaks: Briefly, we flashed on sacred Keats. Long ago and far away, here's what the gentleman said

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer

[...]

Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He star'd at the Pacific—and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

No, it wasn't really that good. But it seemed like a halting first step!