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Last week, the New York Times recounted an alarming fact in a shockingly blasé fashion.
Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Alan Feuer wrote, “For years, President-elect Donald J. Trump has made it known that people he believes to be his enemies should be prosecuted.” It’s like reading from an alternate reality. Jailing dissenters is not a policy position. It’s a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.
Far too often, legacy media covers Trump as if he’s the star of a Machiavellian political drama or a reality TV competition (as he once was). The focus is on whether he’ll wiggle out of a legal scrap or succeed in his latest kooky scheme, without consideration of the impact on the nation or the individuals he seeks to harm.
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An alarming recent example is the response to Trump’s active persecution of Liz Cheney. On December 18, Trump posted in the early hours of the morning on Truth Social, “Liz Cheney could be in a lot of trouble based on the evidence obtained by the [House] subcommittee, which states that ‘numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, and these violations should be investigated by the FBI.’”
Trump was responding to an early stocking stuffer from his House GOP cronies. Rep. Barry Loudermilk, chair of the oversight subcommittee, released a twisted January 6 report that suggested criminal charges should be brought by the FBI against Cheney, who unlike Trump did not summon a mob to the Capitol after attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
And then the mainstream press sprung into action and gave Trump a few stocking stuffers of their own.
Crimewashing is the new sanewashing
The House GOP accuses Cheney of tampering with star witness Cassidy Hutchinson during the January 6 Committee investigation. The charge is objectively bogus, but that didn’t stop the mainstream media from serving as Trump’s pro bono stenographers.
In addition to the aforementioned Times piece, headlined “The Wrath of Trump: House Republicans Map a Case Against Liz Cheney,” the Associated Press reported on the news with similar framing: “After investigating Jan. 6, House GOP sides with Trump and goes after Liz Cheney.” So did ABC News: “Trump backs House GOP accusation Liz Cheney tampered with Jan. 6 committee witness.” So did NBC: “House Republicans say Liz Cheney should be investigated over Jan. 6 committee work.” And so did CNN: “After investigating January 6, House GOP sides with Trump and goes after Liz Cheney.”
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None of these headlines communicate the important fact that Cheney didn’t commit an actual crime and this is all a meritless, vindictive investigation. The Times in particular plays up Trump’s desired strongman image, as if he’s the buff antagonist in a Star Trek movie. This coverage gives Trump exactly what he wants.
This sort of overly credulous framing is especially dangerous at a time when an increasing number of Americans receive their news primarily on social media and rarely read past the headlines. Most of the articles reporting on the Cheney hit bury the facts of the case several paragraphs deep — well past when the average reader might’ve stopped scrolling on their phone.
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The similarly between the Cheney headlines and coverage of Trump’s impeachments is instructive. Back in 2019, when it was clear that Trump had tried to extort the Ukrainian government for political dirt on Joe Biden, the Times reported that “Trump ‘Ignored and Injured’ the National Interest, Democrats Charge in Impeachment Articles.” And after January 6, the Post framed Democratic efforts to hold Trump accountable for his coup attempt as, “House Democrats building elaborate, emotionally charged case against Trump.”
Based on the headlines alone, the charges against Trump and Cheney seem like “he said/she said” politics. A corrupt figure like Trump benefits from “both sides” reporting that leaves the truth in question, even when it isn’t. The real story here isn’t really about Cheney at all — it’s that Trump and his House Republican henchmen are already following through on his authoritarian campaign promise to persecute his political foes.
Liz Cheney did nothing wrong
The House GOP report contends that Cheney broke “numerous federal laws” by “secretly communicating with [former White House aide Cassidy] Hutchinson without Hutchinson’s attorney’s knowledge.” These accusations are lies that the mainstream media has collectively failed to challenge.
When Hutchinson was subpoenaed in 2022, she couldn’t afford an attorney who wasn’t part of Trumpworld, so in desperation, she connected with Stefan Passantino, who’d represented the Trump campaign and his family members. She soon regretted this decision and told her mother, "I'm fucked ... I am completely indebted to these people. And they will ruin my life, Mom, if I do anything that they don't want me to do.”
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Hutchinson testified that Passantino urged her to downplay her role in the administration and falsely claim she didn’t recall events surrounding January 6. The House GOP propaganda machine now suggests that Cheney influenced or coerced Hutchinson’s actual, truthful testimony, which was damaging to Trump.
It was Hutchinson who initiated contact with Cheney when Passantino pressured her to stop complying with the January 6 committee. Hutchinson believed he was steering her into a contempt charge solely for the purposes of protecting Trump. So, the House GOP has accused Cheney of tampering the witness they were trying to tamper. It would be farcical if the media didn’t play along.
In the years since her testimony, Hutchinson has credited Cheney with offering her the support necessary to do the right thing, but she’s made it clear that Cheney didn’t coach her, certainly not to lie. (Watch below.)
Donald Trump is wholly responsible for January 6. He spent months lying about the election and laying the groundwork for his attempted coup, which turned violent. It’s bad enough that Republicans so quickly rallied behind him after his attack on democracy, but it’s beyond perverse that his congressional stooges would target and defame their former colleague because she dared stand up for democracy, call out his anti-democratic lies, and try to hold him accountable.
Beyond Trump’s thirst for vengeance, the GOP has now fully embraced a “Lost Cause” narrative about January 6, which absolves Trump and even his violent supporters of any wrongdoing while pinning the blame on Democrats. To hear them tell it, Nancy Pelosi was responsible for the “lax” security on January 6 and the FBI “infiltrated” the otherwise peaceful crowd at the Capitol. Pursuing charges against Cheney is the final piece in cementing this narrative, and the media is behaving like an all-too-willing accomplice.
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In the aforementioned Haberman/Feuer piece, the New York Times wore its gullibility on its sleeve: “Appearing to have it both ways, Mr. Trump seized on the House report on Wednesday morning, saying that it could present problems for Ms. Cheney, but avoiding responsibility for having been the cause of them.” But Trump’s only “avoiding responsibility” if the press refuses to tell the truth and acknowledge his responsibility.
The Times claims that the House GOP’s report offers a “road map” for investigating Cheney “while also relieving Mr. Trump of the potentially fraught step of explicitly ordering the inquiry himself.” This normalizes Trump’s mobster movie tactics. His fingerprints are all over any potential Cheney investigation. He’s hardly been subtle. His pick for the next FBI director is conspiracy theorist Kash Patel, who was picked for the job precisely because he’ll eagerly weaponize the DOJ against Trump’s enemies.
The story is Trump’s planned abuses of power
The larger, more relevant story right now is that the president-elect has already begun his vengeance campaign against his enemies.
The press usually has no problem connecting dots, as least when it comes to Democrats. For instance, not long after Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter, The Times ran the article, “In Pardoning His Son, Biden Echoes Some of Trump’s Complaints.” This headline seemingly justifies Trump’s baseless accusations that the criminal charges against him were all politically motivated. There’s no similar “told you so” headline regarding the bogus Cheney investigation, even though both Biden and Kamala Harris warned voters that Trump would use the criminal justice system as a personal weapon against his enemies.
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“We know who he would target,” Harris said at an October rally, “because he has attacked them before: Journalists whose stories who he doesn’t like, election officials who refuse to cheat by finding extra votes for him, judges who insist on following the law instead of bending to his will. This is among the reasons I believe so strongly that a second Trump term would be a huge risk for America, and dangerous.”
Just weeks before the election, Harris drew a key contrast between herself and Trump at a rally in Georgia, a state she’d later lose.
“Just imagine the Oval Office in three months. Picture it in your mind,” she said. “It’s either Donald Trump in there, stewing, stewing over his enemies list, or me working for you, checking off my to-do list.”
A month before Trump returns to the Oval Office, House Republicans released a plan for prosecuting Cheney but not one for lowering gas prices or interest rates — the things Trump promised to do and the media promoted without pressing him on the details.
While mainstream outlets refused to say so during the campaign, the fact of the matter is that Harris was right — Trump’s enemies list is his entire to-do list. It’s been clear in the seven weeks since the election how focused he is on persecuting his enemies while he ignores actual policy issues that don’t directly impact his ego.
There’s no liberal bias in framing the Cheney story for what it is — Trump persecuting someone who crossed him. His all-consuming need for revenge is especially petty because he defeated her thoroughly. Hillary Clinton might reasonably harbor a grudge against James Comey, but the January 6 Committee didn’t prevent Trump’s return to the White House. Trump, however, isn’t just satisfied with ending Cheney’s political career. He wants her to relish her mug shot.
The fact that Cheney could realistically face indictment and even prison under a Trump-controlled DOJ should chill Americans to their very soul. Trump, with a key boost from House Republicans, is making good on his promise to get vengeance on his foes even before he takes office. That’s the headline, but the media prefers to give us Trump’s box scores.
That’s it for this week
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Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend, and happy holidays.
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