• Fox’s Brian Kilmeade expressed support for cuts to Medicaid, saying, “People get addicted to the free money.”

• Fox’s Jesse Watters on Democrats being arrested: “You guys have no idea how much fun we’re having. This is a dream come true.” 
• The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh urged President Donald Trump to ignore the Supreme Court’s ruling on notice before deportations: “It’s illegitimate. It’s ridiculous. Trump should ignore it.”

• Podcaster Benny Johnson: “Social Security is completely fraudulent. It should be privatized. They should destroy that entire program.”
• Fox’s Sean Hannity threatened to unleash his radio listeners on members of Congress “getting in the way” of Trump’s budget bill.

Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo, an obsequious booster and right-wing media ally of President Donald Trump, has used her program to whip Republican lawmakers to support a permanent extension of his 2017 tax cuts, which passed the House Thursday morning. Analysis of the legislation, dubbed “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” shows that the vast majority of the tax cuts will go to the rich, while lower-income Americans stand to lose money due to the massive cuts to health care coverage and other benefits. 

Bartiromo has been especially interested in shoring up the legislation’s Medicaid cuts. During frequent Fox Business segments, Bartiromo, her guests, and even her guest host have advocated for useless work requirements and spread false claims that federal Medicaid funds are paying for coverage of undocumented immigrants or that the cuts are targeting supposedly massive “waste, fraud, and abuse” in the program. 

Bartiromo isn’t the only Fox personality involved in whipping votes for the legislation. House Republicans shared talking points drafted by Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich which attacked the Congressional Budget Office for its analysis that the tax cuts will add trillions to the debt and distribute money from the poorest Americans in the form of massive tax cuts to the wealthy. 

Right-wing pundits have been calling for cuts to Medicaid. They just got their wish.

Right-wing media figures are telling their audiences that proposed work requirements for Medicaid will be targeted at men who are unwilling to look for a job. In reality, the actual population most likely to be affected is poor, rural women who are taking care of elderly parents or adult children. 

One of the ways the House’s budget legislation, which passed Thursday, reduces Medicaid costs is by introducing arduous and unnecessary work requirements for beneficiaries that would begin at the end of 2026. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that 10.3 million people would lose their Medicaid by 2034. 

Much of the right-wing media commentary supporting the bill mischaracterized Medicaid beneficiaries by claiming there is a large pool of “able-bodied” people who refuse to seek employment. In fact, 92% of people on Medicaid are working, have a disability, or are performing duties — such as going to school or caregiving — that could qualify for an exemption from meeting work requirements. 

Media Matters’ John Knefel has this great piece detailing how right-wing media are lying about the Republican push to strip people of Medicaid coverage. I invite you to read it here.

A new Media Matters study shows what happens to a TikTok feed after a user interacts with some popular right-wing comedy podcasts. After we interacted with five such podcasts, TikTok’s “For You” page recommendation algorithm catapulted our account down a right-wing rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and toxic masculinity content over the span of just a few hours. 

During the 2024 election, Donald Trump appeared for interviews with a handful of very popular podcasts that claim to be nonpolitical but that discuss news and politics with a right-leaning ideological bent and remain receptive to the MAGA agenda. This media tour included appearances on the Nelk Boys’ Full Send, The Joe Rogan Experience, Impulsive with Logan Paul, This Past Weekend w/ Theo Van, and Flagrant — all of which self-identify as comedy shows. Media Matters followed the podcasters’ TikTok accounts (or a fan account that exclusively posts clips from the show in the case of Joe Rogan, who doesn’t have his own account), then watched and “liked” each account’s 10 most recent videos. 

Media Matters found that TikTok’s recommendation algorithm began quickly and progressively populating our “For You” page with right-wing conspiracy theories and toxic masculinity content. We found that our FYP also contained content promoting medical misinformation, doomsday prepping, racism, right-wing media, and transphobia. 

I highly recommend you read the entire study here.