Carl Higbie delivered a lengthy broadside against CNN, MSNBC, Politico and other major news organizations, accusing them of misleading Americans across a long list of political, cultural and public-health controversies.
Higbie’s examples ranged from the origins of COVID-19 and the Hunter Biden laptop to immigration, January 6, Donald Trump, crime statistics and media coverage of several viral incidents. Some of the cases he cited were later substantially revised or debunked, while others remain disputed or were characterized by Higbie more broadly than the available evidence supports.
“But here’s a list of things that CNN, MSNBC, and a few other leftist outlets like Politico also lied about, or made up, or misled the American people,” Higbie said.
He began with two of the most prominent disputes of the COVID era.
“You had the COVID lab leak is racist. Ah, turned out that was true. All right, and then the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. Nope, that actually was also true,” Higbie said.
The origins of COVID-19 remain unresolved. In 2025, the CIA shifted to assessing that a research-related origin was more likely than natural transmission, but it made that judgment with “low confidence” and said both possibilities remained plausible.
The Hunter Biden laptop controversy developed differently. Federal prosecutors later introduced Hunter Biden’s laptop as evidence at his 2024 gun trial, with an FBI witness describing how investigators verified the device and its contents. Reporting organizations that later obtained copies of the data also authenticated portions of the material, though questions existed about copies circulated outside law enforcement.
Higbie also revisited the debate over gas stoves.
“Joe Biden will never ban gas stoves, and then he banned gas stoves,” he said.
That characterization is too broad.
The Biden administration did not impose a nationwide federal ban on existing gas stoves. The Consumer Product Safety Commission said in 2023 that it was not pursuing such a ban, while some states and municipalities separately adopted restrictions affecting gas appliances in new construction.
Higbie then moved rapidly through a series of high-profile stories that became flashpoints in national politics.
“Oh, you had the hands up, don’t shoot. Look at these four people right there. Yeah, it turned out Michael Brown never did that, and he actually reached for the cop’s gun,” Higbie said.
He also raised the 2020 NASCAR controversy involving Bubba Wallace.
“They said that there was a noose in a NASCAR thing. Turned out that was a choke.”
The FBI ultimately determined that the rope found in Wallace’s assigned garage stall had been there since before Wallace was assigned the stall and therefore was not placed there as a hate crime. NASCAR and the FBI nevertheless continued to describe the rope itself as a noose used to pull the garage door.
Higbie also cited the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick after the January 6 riot.
“Oh, they said the policeman was killed by the January 6 protesters. Total hoax. He actually died of a heart attack a day later,” Higbie said.
The medical examiner ruled that Sicknick died of natural causes after suffering strokes, not a heart attack.
Authorities had initially investigated whether injuries or chemical exposure during the riot contributed to his death.
Another example involved Trump’s comments during an April 2020 COVID briefing.
“They said that Trump told people to drink bleach. He never said that,” Higbie said.
Trump did not tell Americans to “drink bleach.”
He did, however, publicly ask whether disinfectant could be used inside the body “by injection inside or almost a cleaning,” while discussing possible COVID treatments. He later said he had been speaking sarcastically.
Higbie also complained about media portrayals of Trump’s rhetoric, including coverage of his use of the word “bloodbath,” immigration comments, and allegations involving the military.
“There was the Alfa-Bank hoax, the time when Trump said bloodbath about an election and they tried to make it seem like he was talking about a civil war, and then they rushed to demonize him,” Higbie said.
He then turned from individual stories to his broader criticism of the press.
“They think they are the arbiter of anything real in this life,” Higbie said.
His argument was not simply that reporters sometimes make errors, but that major outlets repeatedly adopt narratives hostile to Trump and Republicans before all relevant facts are established.
That criticism also extended to government spending on media subscriptions.
“Remember when Trump axed like $8 million in paid subscriptions to places like Politico? I was dancing, dancing on their financial grave,” Higbie said. “They were just bitter about the fact that we didn’t want to send taxpayer money to subsidize some journalist company that just crapped on Republicans.”
Higbie concluded with an openly hostile assessment of much of the national press.
“I hate the majority of the press, and I am so happy for them.”
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