Not only were the liberal media trying to exploit the attack on the Capitol to call for the deplatforming of conservatives, but there were some who wanted to “deprogram” conservatives. And in a Thursday evening appearance on Fox Business Network’s The Evening Edit, Media Research Center Founder and President Brent Bozell called them out for demanding what communist dictators had done to their oppositions for decades.
At the top of the segment, anchor Liz MacDonald noted there was “this growing call by Democrats and TV hosts to stop extremist conspiracy theories on the right” even though “there are extremist conspiracy theories on the left.” She also fretted: “The dangers -- Brent, this feels like it is veering wildly out of control into a push to deplatform all conservatives.”
Singling out former broadcast anchor Katie Couric, Bozell cautioned viewers about what she wanted. “She’s talking about 75 million people who voted for Donald Trump and this deprogramming thing, Liz, this is something Mao Zedong advocated. This is what Ho Chi Minh advocated, this is what they’re doing in North Korea as we speak,” he said.
“Never in my life did I think I would hear somebody who is considered to be respectable calling for us to be deprogrammed. She’s not the only one,” he added. “AOC, others are saying the same thing. This is a radical left-wing that is showing its true colors with the advent of Joe Biden. It’s showing America who they really are, what they really believe.”
Bozell deduced that what the left was trying to do was use the Capitol attack to smear off conservatives and conservatism as a whole. For example, Amazon had banned the social media app, Parler, from using its servers. And yet, “we’ve found, so far, 204 items that Amazon is selling that are hate items including wanting to kill Republicans and wishing for the death of Donald Trump. That is okay.”
There was a massive double standard indeed. MacDonald recalled how a supporter of Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) attempted to assassinate multiple Republican lawmakers during a baseball practice:
It’s worth remembering that a Bernie Sanders supporter and hardcore Democrat partisan James Hodgkinson, went to softball field to murder Republicans, and he almost shot to death Steve Scalise. He was on left-wing, far-left Facebook chat rooms. He was a fan of MSNBC and he was in chat rooms calling about terminating Republicans, calling them traitors.
Building off of her and the idea of attacks long forgotten, Bozell recounted how “The left-wing mob attacked the White House. When they tried to storm the East Wing, when the President was giving his speech? When they attacked a United States Senator, Rand Paul, who had to flee? They are forgetting that one.”
He added: “You know what else they're forgetting, Liz? All this talk about Washington, D.C. needed to be guarded yesterday. What about what happened four years ago? What about the mob that attacked four years ago during the Trump inaugural? Where they closed down streets where Antifa and Black Lives Matter were destroying property up and down. They rioted on the day of Donald Trump's inauguration and nobody in the press covered that. What hypocrisy.”
Towards the end of the segment and following a clip dubious former CIA director John Brennan saying the FBI should probe religious folks and libertarians, Bozell got fired up:
Where the hell was this man when Portland was on fire? When Seattle was on fire? When city after city was on fire? Where was this man when, on average, one police officer is murdered every single week? Where was he? Where was he when the statehouse in Wisconsin was occupied by rioters for days on end, disrupting the work of the governor? Where was he just yesterday talking about these left-wing mobs that were again burning the city but no? We have to go after libertarians and people who are religious.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
Fox Business Network’s The Evening Edit
January 21, 2021
6:26:00 p.m. EasternELIZABETH MACDONALD: With me now, Media Research Center Brent Bozell. Brent, it’s always great to have you back on. Okay, this growing call by Democrats and TV hosts to stop extremist conspiracy theories on the right. There are extremist conspiracy theories on the left. The dangers -- Brent, this feels like it is veering wildly out of control into a push to deplatform all conservatives. What do you say?
BRENT BOZELL: It really is. I mean, listen to the likes of Katie Couric who is calling for there to be deprogramming of the Trump cult. She’s talking about 75 million people who voted for Donald Trump and this deprogramming thing, Liz, this is something Mao Zedong advocated. This is what Ho Chi Minh advocated, this is what they’re doing in North Korea as we speak.
Never in my life did I think I would hear somebody who is considered to be respectable calling for us to be deprogrammed. She’s not the only one. AOC, others are saying the same thing. This is a radical left-wing that is showing its true colors with the advent of Joe Biden. It’s showing America who they really are, what they really believe.
They believe that the events of January 6 now – a handful of people who caused the mayhem – a handful of people are now the embodiment of conservative movement. The hate that’s pouring on the internet against conservatives while conservatives are being banned.
Amazon that’s banning people because they're violent, conservatives because they're violent. We’ve caught – We’ve found, so far, 204 items that Amazon is selling that are hate items including wanting to kill Republicans and wishing for the death of Donald Trump. That is okay. But the conservatives, they're the ones that are right-wingnuts.
MACDONALD: Okay. So, we had dozens and dozens were arrested in the Capitol Hill riots. So, that happened. The issue is painting with a broad brush all conservatives. Because now you’ve got Carolyn Maloney, House Oversight chair saying put the FBI and probe, you know, saying we’ve got to probe Parler but not talking about Twitter and Facebook. She’s saying we got to get businesses and their customers to do surveillance.
It’s worth remembering that a Bernie Sanders supporter and hardcore Democrat partisan James Hodgkinson, went to softball field to murder Republicans, and he almost shot to death Steve Scalise. He was on left-wing, far-left Facebook chat rooms. He was a fan of MSNBC and he was in chat rooms calling about terminating Republicans, calling them traitors.
I like your reaction to what Nicole Wallace of MSNBC said recently. Let's watch this.
NICOLLE WALLACE: It would be my policy that a Republican must assert the truth before they're allowed to share any other views. [Transition] If we can protect against counterfeit dollar bills we should be able to protect against fake news that we now know has the potential to kill people as it did two weeks ago.
MACDONALD: Okay. She started out talking about these extremist conspiracy theories. We get that. But then she is talking about you’ve got to assert the truth before you're allowed to speak. That's something entirely different, Brent.
BOZELL: Well yeah, let's talk about asserting the truth. If you're going to talk about what happened on Capitol Hill, which of course you need to, where were these same reporters this summer when the mob, the left-wing mob, attacked -- everybody is forgetting this. The left-wing mob attacked the White House. When they tried to storm the east wing, when the President was giving his speech? When they attacked a United States senator, Rand Paul, who had to flee? They are forgetting that one.
You know what else they're forgetting, Liz? All this talk about Washington, D.C. needed to be guarded yesterday. What about what happened four years ago? What about the mob that attacked four years ago during the Trump inaugural? Where they closed down streets where Antifa and Black Lives Matter were destroying property up and down. They rioted on the day of Donald Trump's inauguration and nobody in the press covered that. What hypocrisy.
MACDONALD: Yeah. We saw it. We covered it. And we covered, we had our camera, the guy's limousine, gypsy cab driver, his limousine was torched and set on fire. He lost his small business.
I’d like to talk about former CIA Director John Brennan saying that the Biden administration is now going after libertarians too. Watch this.
JOHN BRENNAN: The members of the Biden team who have been nominated or have been appointed are now moving in laser-like fashion to try to uncover as much as they can about what looks very similar to insurgency movements that we've seen overseas. Where they germinate in different parts of a country and they gain strength and it brings together an unholy alliance, frequently, of religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, nativists, even libertarians.
[Transition]
I really do think that the law enforcement, homeland security, intelligence and even defense officials are doing everything possible to root out what seems to be a very, very serious and insidious threat to our democracy and our republic.
MACDONALD: Yes. Root out, we get it. Extremists insidious threats are wrong but take on how he said it. Go ahead. Libertarians. They want smaller government. Are there extremist libertarian groups? Are we missing something?
BOZELL: Excuse me, Liz. Excuse me. Where the hell was this man when Portland was on fire? When Seattle was on fire? When city after city was on fire? Where was this man when, on average, one police officer is murdered every single week? Where was he? Where was he when the statehouse in Wisconsin was occupied by rioters for days on end, disrupting the work of the governor? Where was he just yesterday talking about these left-wing mobs that were again burning the city but no? We have to go after libertarians and people who are religious.
MACDONALD: Yeah. I hear what you're saying. Brent, I hear you're upset about it. And you know what about you know trapping police officers inside of government buildings in Portland or Seattle and trying to set them on fire to kill them? So, the thing is if you don't cover it, people are going to react. They get frustrated. The media is not covering it. And this guy is not talking about it.
Brent. We’re going to have you back on. We get that you’re outraged and you’re fired up about it. You’re going to come back with us. Good to see you, Brent.
BOZELL: Thank you, Liz.
