Part of keeping up with the news—and then watching the Sunday shows—is that you start to see the propaganda code embedded in our political matrix. Follow us as we do our best impersonation of Lawrence Fishburne’s Morpheus and “show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” This week, at least.
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### Scott Bessent
We’ve already covered some of the most ridiculously idiotic things Bessent said on ABC’s *This Week* [here](#), so we’re going to focus on his other two Sunday show appearances.
On NBC’s *Meet The Press*, host Kristen Welker pressed Bessent on the new 10 percent tariffs Donald Trump announced this week. The tariffs followed Ontario airing an ad featuring real 1987 footage of Ronald Reagan explaining why tariffs are bad—a move that apparently hurt Trump’s feelings.
Bessent’s defense was neither compelling nor especially sensible.
**BESSENT:** “Well, Kristen, let’s—let’s think about this. This is a kind of propaganda against U.S. citizens. You know, it’s psyops.”
Is it, though? Because if playing footage of and quoting Republicans being hypocritical liars counts as “psyops,” this very weekly rundown would qualify as an MKUltra program.
Welker also asked Bessent for details on whether these new Canadian tariffs would apply to all goods or only select items, but he did not know.
Welker then launched some “psyops” of her own by playing a clip of Trump promising to bring the price of groceries “way down.” After listing several items like coffee, beef, and bacon whose prices are actually rising, Bessent got a bit defensive and tried to shift the goalposts.
**BESSENT:** “Kristen, it’s unfortunate—as much as I like you—you like to cherrypick. You know, when we came in, it was ‘egg-flation, egg-flation, egg-flation.’ You know, egg prices are down.”
Bessent took a similar tone with a similar question on CBS’s *Face The Nation* when host Margaret Brennan pressed him. He tried the classic spouse’s tactic when losing an argument:
**BESSENT:** “You listed the things that are up, but we’re seeing plenty of things that are down. Why does everyone always point out the things they suck at instead of the things they’re so great at, Margaret?”
Back on *Meet The Press*, before the interview ended, Bessent was asked about the destruction of the East Wing of the White House to make way for Trump’s gaudy ballroom. Welker played a clip of Trump promising that they would not touch the original White House structure, then asked why Trump didn’t tell the public his real intentions.
While Bessent recycled the usual talking points and false equivalences we’ve all heard about previous White House renovations, he added a new one we had to note.
**BESSENT:** “Well, again, I think this was a judgment call on the president. The president is a master builder. And I don’t know. I assume that maybe parts of the East Wing could have been asbestos, could have been mold, could have not fit with the design.”
A MASTER BUILDER! Here is a video of Trump loving asbestos—while you catch your breath laughing at the suggestion that he is a MASTER BUILDER.
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### Arnold Schwarzenegger
Former California Republican governor and aging Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared on CNN’s *State of the Union* to criticize California’s redistricting effort.
Current California Governor Gavin Newsom is leading an effort to redraw the state’s congressional maps after Texas redrew its maps to steal five Democratic House seats, giving Trump and the GOP even more power.
While Schwarzenegger’s reasoning sounds fair, it strikes us as a bit Pollyanna-ish.
**SCHWARZENEGGER:**
“Texas started it. They did something terribly wrong. And then, all of a sudden, California says, well, then we have to do something terribly wrong. And then now other states are jumping in. And now this is spreading like wildfire all over the country. […] The thing is that you cannot cheat your way out of it. What they should do is, what the Democrats should do is, they should outperform Trump.”
The problem with that, Governator, is that in many places it’s already rigged against Democrats, so that even when Democrats turn out more voters, Republicans still manage to gain seats!
Democrats have tried to pass voting rights and national fair redistricting laws, but you cannot get there if we are fighting with our fists while the GOP uses laser blasters.
If anyone should understand the need to improvise to defeat a stronger and more ruthless enemy, it should be the guy who took down a Predator.
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### Margaret Brennan
Speaking of gerrymandering, we conclude with Margaret Brennan on CBS’s *Face The Nation*, particularly the end of her interview with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
When Jeffries brought up the topic of gerrymandering and election denial, Brennan’s attempt to “both sides” the issue sounded less like CBS News and more like OAN.
**BRENNAN:**
“You said Democrats ‘there are no election deniers on our side of the aisle.’ You said that back in January. But recently you’ve been using the term ‘rigged elections’ in reference to the upcoming midterms. Democrats were appalled when President Trump used language like that. How do you justify using that now? Doesn’t that undermine faith for voters you need to show up?”
Ahem, no. Because voters can understand the difference between denying the results of a fair election and the GOP’s effort to change the rules to cheat and steal elections.
This “both sides” argument would be laughable if made by a terrible op-ed writer or some journalistically bankrupt outlet. Guess we didn’t have to wait long for the “Bari Weiss Effect” to be noticed at CBS News.
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https://www.wonkette.com/p/psyops-on-the-sunday-shows