The news that isn't fit to print.
Trump had a strategy.
Not that people would know if they relied on Fox News.
Elizabeth Cheney, the Vice Chair of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 attack on the Capitol, offered a resolution to subpoena Trump, saying:
The vast weight of evidence presented so far has shown us that the central cause of January 6th was one man, Donald Trump, who many others followed. None of this would have happened without him. He was personally and substantially involved in all of it.
Democrats have a hard time grappling with the idea that people who think of themselves as loyal Americans are perfectly OK with Trump and his effort to overthrow the government. Aren't they shocked by Trump? Aren't they outraged? Doesn't it seem immoral and illegal to them to know that Trump plotted to claim victory in an election he lost?
Maybe it would shock them if they heard it that way, but Fox News viewers do not. They hear Trump won the election. But what about revelations by the House Select Committee? Don't those get through? No.
The mainstream news is reporting evidence that the January 6 attack was no accident. Trump had a plan to retain office even if he lost the 2020 election. He laid groundwork with claims of rigged elections going back to the Iowa caucus in 2015, continuing into the 2020 election. Then in the early morning hours on election night he announced that he had already won the election, and that no more votes should be counted. This was strategy. Steve Bannon and Roger Stone each reported Trump's plan in recorded meetings with supporters. The House Committee showed new video by Stone, spoken on November 1, 2020, two days prior to the election:
I really do suspect it [the election] will be up in the air. When that happens the key thing to do is claim victory. Possession is nine tenths of the law. 'No, we won. Fuck you. Sorry. Over. We won. You're wrong. Fuck you.'
Similar video of Steve Bannon has been available to the public since this July. Bannon, too, described the strategy.
And what Trump's gonna do, is just declare victory. Right? He's gonna declare victory. But that doesn't mean he's a winner. He's just gonna say he's a winner. More of our people vote early that count. Theirs vote in mail. So they're going to have a natural disadvantage and Trump's going to take advantage of it. That's our strategy. So when you wake up Wednesday morning it's going to be a firestorm. . . . And Trump's gonna be there sitting there mocking, sweeting shit out, 'You lose.' I'm the winner. I'm the king."
People with a primary diet of Fox News don't hear Stone or Bannon spilling the beans. They hear that Trump won, and that somehow Democrats stole the election.
The news blackout is profound. The House Committee hearing does not penetrate the Fox shield. This morning on Fox the news is about Hunter Biden's laptop, a loud heckler at a Town Hall held by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and a mother attending school board meetings to make accusations of "grooming."
The Fox News website this morning leads with criticism of Biden for claiming progress on inflation. There follows a report that Bill Murray "absolutely hated" the SNL cast; a family tradition of a general store in Pennsylvania; that mother angry about grooming at a gay themed school Halloween show; voters in Brazil who prefer Trump to Biden; and a Colorado tow company with exotic cars to auction.
The 16th story on Fox website acknowledges something revealed by the committee, but it wasn't about Trump. A story describes Nancy Pelosi while the Capitol was under attack saying she wanted to "punch" Trump if he showed up in support of the riot. There is no story anywhere on Fox that describes the revelations of the January 6 committee.
The Fox News blackout helps explain the lockstep behavior of so manyGOP candidates and officeholders in support of Trump. GOP primary voters think Trump is a victim. People who know better don’t dare tell them that Trump is conning them.