Right-wing media is 'coalescing' around one desperate message to defend Trump

In their thirst to speak of anything but damning emails further linking President Donald Trump to the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein, right-wing influencers were desperately grasping at everything.

New York Times reporter Ken Bensinger describes pundits’ ‘thunderous silence’ at one of the most exciting media explosions in weeks.

“For hours, Fox News made nary a mention of the tranche [of incriminating documents], whose contents suggested, among other things, that the president knew more about the abuses perpetrated by Mr. Epstein, a former friend, than he had admitted,” said Bensinger. “Prominent podcasters like Ben Shapiro and Megyn Kelly focused on H-1B visas, the government shutdown and a proposal for 50-year mortgages on their shows and social media.”

The online troll account known as “Catturd,” which posts “dozens of times every day to its nearly four million followers on X,” spent the aftermath of the email release attacking Michelle Obama, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and former FBI Director James Comey.

“But as time wore on, right-wing media figures began coalescing around another approach: focusing on a single redacted name in the emails,” said Bensinger. “They argued that Democrats on the House Oversight Committee — who had released three emails early on Wednesday — had created a false narrative by hiding the name of one of Epstein’s victims in one of the messages. The redaction, the theory went, was meant to cover up that the victim, Virginia Giuffre, previously said she had never witnessed Mr. Trump involved in sexual abuse of minors.”

“This was done intentionally,” posted Newsmax anchor Rob Schmitt. He then followed that up with a selfie-style video in a gym. “This is how sick and twisted these people are,” Schmitt said. “They are vile creatures. This is what we’re up against.”

Right-wing media figures are in a difficult position, said Bensinger.

“The unified response to this week’s [email] disclosures shows how closely aligned right-wing media voices are with elected Republicans and the degree to which the two share story lines — and provide each other political cover,” said Bensinger. “Indeed, the core message that ended up emanating from conservative media this week originated [from Republicans] within the Oversight Committee itself, [who] jumped on the redaction question less than an hour after the three emails dropped.”

“Why did Democrats cover up the name?” Bensinger said committee Republicans posted on X. “Democrats are trying to create a fake narrative to slander President Trump.”

The White House seized that same line of thinking, pointing out that the redacted Epstein victim in the emails never claimed Trump had personally touched her.

Other MAGA influencers are now trying to ride that train as far as it can go, said Bensinger, with podcasters Benny Johnson and Tim Pool joining countless others in unified argument, all trying to raise suspicion over why Giuffre’s name was redacted.

Bensinger points out that it is the policy of the Oversight Committee to redact the names of victims in its revelations, and that Republicans committed an “apparent violation of the committee’s policy” when they released the unredacted version.

Read the New York Times report at this link.