Tag: 60 minutes
Moms for Liberty founders, Tiffany Justice, left, and Tina Descovich

After '60 Minutes' Debacle, Mom For Liberty Scurries To Bannon 'War Room'

Following a disastrous interview on 60 Minutes, Tiffany Justice – a co-founder of the extremist group Moms for Liberty – retreated to the friendlier terrain of Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast in an attempt to mitigate the damage she’d done to her organization.

Bannon and Justice spent nearly 11 minutes criticizing CBS’ Scott Pelley for supposedly subjecting the anti-LGBTQ activist to unfair scrutiny, primarily by reading Moms for Liberty’s own tweets to her and asking for her response. At one point, Pelley asked Justice and her fellow Moms for Liberty co-founder Tina Descovich what they meant by “grooming.” At another, Pelley asked for clarification on what ideology they claimed kids were being indoctrinated into. Justice and Descovich responded by dodging and retreating to their standard talking points.

It’s no surprise that Justice sought to clean up her mess using Bannon’s show. She usedWar Room and other right-wing media programs to build up Moms for Liberty in 2021 and 2022, and then leveraged that growth into a series of friendly mainstream media profiles and interviews. Now, as parents and communities become more aware of her organization’s extreme, anti-LGBTQ and anti-Black positions, they are fighting back, as demonstrated in the 60 Minutes segment.

During the War Room interview, Justice accused 60 Minutes of deceptively editing her responses.

“You’re saying they selectively edited out your answers?” Bannon asked.

“Yeah, they wanted to make it seem like Tina and I didn’t know what we were talking about, I guess,” Justice responded.

On X (formerly Twitter) Descovich posted what she claimed were excerpts from the official transcript of the interview, purportedly exposing CBS’s omissions. The only problem with the Moms for Liberty counter-narrative is that the exchanges Descovich posted were just as incoherent as the responses CBS aired.

“If there are any lawyers watching this and you’d like to try to help me to navigate dealing with 60 Minutes, I’m open to ideas,” Justice said later in the interview. “But I’ve been talking with a few and trying to figure out —”

“Are you thinking of suing 60 Minutes?” Bannon interjected.

“I want to make sure I’m releasing information in a legal way,” Justice responded.

Bannon also said CBS was trying to make Moms for Liberty look like “bad and evil people, that are hurting people, bullies, whatever you want to call it,” as though that were self-evidently false. Unsurprisingly, Bannon didn’t mention the myriad examples of Moms for Liberty harassing and intimidating teachers and administrators, including an incident where Justice’s conduct was “so disruptive and disrespectful,” according to a superintendent, that she “could be barred from the campus.”

Later in the War Room segment, Bannon told Justice that Moms for Liberty was “trending” on X and that “one of the terms is Klansman Karenhood,” adding, “They’re trying to say you’re the new Klan.”

“They are out to destroy you,” Bannon said to conclude the interview. Despite Bannon’s trademark bombast, it might just be that parents and teachers are opposed to a group that has repeatedly quoted Hitler and attempts to ban books in schools.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Jacob Chansley

Judge Berates ‘QAnon Shaman’ For ‘Publicity Stunt’

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Jacob Chansley, known as the so-called "QAnon Shaman," is among the many far-right extremists facing criminal charges in connection with the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol Building. When Chansley's attorney, Albert Watkins, appeared at a bail hearing last week on March 5, Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denounced Chansley's recent appearance on60 Minutes Plus as a "media publicity stunt."

At the hearing, Watkins tried to convince Lamberth — a Ronald Reagan appointee — that his client should be released on bail before his trial. The 33-year-old Chansley is facing criminal charges that include violent entry, disorderly conduct and illegally entering restricted spaces.

During his 60 Minutes Plus appearance, Chansley tried to paint himself as a sympathetic figure. But Lamberth was not impressed and wanted to know why Chansley made that television appearance without his authorization. The judge asked Watkins, "Can you tell me how that came about?" and accused the attorney of using "subterfuge" to avoid jailhouse restrictions.

Lamberth did not grant the QAnon Shaman bail.

Watkins, at the hearing, told Lamberth, "It didn't occur to me that I wouldn't be able to capture the video image of my client in my office." And Watkins, in response to Lambert's allegation of "subterfuge," said, "It's just not my style."

Law & Crime reporter Adam KIasfeld notes that Watkins has been "depicting his client as a man inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, a believer in the principle of nonviolence toward all living beings called ahimsa — and a supposed shaman who allegedly would not crush a bug." But prosecutors have been stressing that the pole Chansley was carrying on Jan. 6 could have been used as a deadly weapon. And Chansley, according to court papers, left a threatening note for then-Vice President Mike Pence that described him as a "traitor" and read, "It's only a matter of time. Justice is coming."

The insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6 were trying to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over then-President Donald Trump, who repeatedly made the false and debunked claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him through widespread voter fraud. As part of the defense, Klasfeld points out, Chansley has tried to paint himself as someone who was duped and misled by Trump.

The January 6 insurrectionists believed that Pence betrayed Trump by not doing more to prevent Biden's certification, and some of them were calling for his murder and chanting, "Hang Mike Pence."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Louise Paschall, one of the federal prosecutors in Chansley's case, spoke by phone during the bail hearing and said, "We know how the defendant feels to this day about some of these issues because he has spoken to the press." And Chansley, Paschall said, obviously believes that the election was stolen from Trump "because he told 60 Minutes as much."

Donald Trump, Joe Biden

’60 Minutes’ Interview Portends Disaster For Trump Even Before It Airs

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, along with their running mates, are slated to appear on Sunday in the upcoming episode of the CBS news and interview show 60 Minutes. But reporting from CNN and Trump's own comments made it clear on Tuesday that his interview with the network did not go to his liking.

"I am pleased to inform you that, for the sake of accuracy in reporting, I am considering posting my interview with Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes, PRIOR TO AIRTIME! This will be done so that everybody can get a glimpse of what a FAKE and BIASED interview is all about," Trump said in a tweet on Tuesday evening. "Everyone should compare this terrible Electoral Intrusion with the recent interviews of Sleepy Joe Biden!"

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Dr. Anthony Fauci

Trump Tweets Petty Attack On Fauci Over '60 Minutes' Interview

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

On Monday, President Donald Trump fired off tweets attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci — who has sounded increasingly critical of the president. Fauci has earned widespread trust from the public as one of the top government officials in the response to the coronavirus pandemic, while Trump is seen as an unreliable source of information on the crisis. But Trump decided to attack Fauci — in the last weeks before an election, no less — not simply about policy disagreements but on a petty and personal level.

During an interview for CBS News' 60 Minutes that aired on Sunday night, Fauci candidly said that he wasn't surprised that Trump was recently infected with COVID-19 and that he wishes the president had been more careful. Trump, Fauci emphasized, could be doing a lot more to promote the use of protective face masks. Fauci has also said, as news outlets have reported, that he's been prevented from appearing before the media on numerous occasions.

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