On Deadline: White House, Angelo Carusone explains how the right-wing media debate on AI is mirroring splits over Iran and affordability
Carusone: “People that are responsive to their audience, they're not going along with Trump on this because their audience, as you note, is afraid of the implications of AI”
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From the September 15, 2026, edition of MS NOW's Deadline: White House
NICOLLE WALLACE (HOST): Yeah. I mean, Angelo, this is something, you know, you've talked about in terms of narrative dominance. When you have it, you have a better shot at being able to call something a hoax, especially if people are saying you don't have evidence that contradicts it in front of their eyes. When you no longer have it or you're losing control of it. And his numbers, we should say, have dropped like a stone since this issue has sort of burst into public consciousness. So fewer and fewer people believe him anyway. And to me, the concerns about AI are bipartisan, as evidenced by Steve Bannon showing up next to Bernie Sanders.
ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS PRESIDENT): Yeah, I mean, so there's a lot of things colliding here at the same time. And one is, that it is a reflection of the fact that they've lost complete narrative dominance, narrative control. And the illustration of that is in the video montage that you played. The idea of calling something a hoax actually had resonance power with the audience, because what it gave them is a framework for understanding, oh, this thing, yes, I'm opposed to that. I don't need to know any details, I don't need to have any information. It is being branded as a hoax. And as a consequence of it being a hoax, that means that I'm anti that. It means it's bad, somebody else is trying to get a one up on me. China, the Democrats, whatever that is, the media, they're perpetuating this hoax, I'm anti it. That's the power of the frame, and that's what he had leading into this. Calling it a hoax now actually doesn't resonate. It doesn't connect. As you note, there's bipartisan opposition here and you can see the fractures. You can see it happening in real time in the right-wing media and the MAGA larger media ecosystem. There's a segment that reflexively took his framework, it's a hoax, and let's run with it. Fox News, Megyn Kelly, Ben Shapiro: hoax. We're going to go with the hoax line. And then there's another segment, the Steve Bannon's of the world, the Tim Dillon's, the bro-casts that are not there. And those, by the way, are the same fault lines that we saw with Iran, with affordability or cost of living, all those, it's the same exact fault line all over again.
WALLACE: And Epstein.
CARUSONE: And people that are responsive to their audience, they're not going along with Trump on this because their audience, as you note, is afraid of the implications of AI.