Right-Wing Pundits Bash Iran War Supporters For Stifling Criticism: ‘The Most Shameless Gaslighting Campaign’

Associated Press

Conservative media stars Matt Walsh and Ann Coulter pushed back on alleged pro-Iran war commentators and outlets on Sunday in a series of social media posts.

Coulter took aim at Fox News, where she’s been a frequent guest, commentator, and contributor for years.

“Watching Fox News assure viewers the Iran war is going SUPER well and Trump is a total stud is like watching the same network assure viewers that Dominion Voting Systems rigged the 2020 election and Trump was the winner,” Coulter wrote.

Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million in 2023 to settle a defamation lawsuit alleging its hosts made false claims about the 2020 election.

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who had a very public falling-out with Trump over the Epstein files, replied to Coulter, writing, “Fox News is now the fake news. Brainwashing boomers to support what we voted against.”

Meanwhile, The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh wrote Sunday, “Some of us expressed great concern about the Iran War when it was first launched. We were shouted down and condemned as ‘panicans’ and ‘blackpillers’ and even Islamist sympathizers.”

Walsh continued:

But it’s pretty clear from how things have gone that our concerns were absolutely reasonable and legitimate. Maybe Trump will get us out of this thing soon and it still won’t spiral into a long and drawn out war. But even if that happens — and I’m not convinced it will — no thoughtful person can deny at this point that the spiral and long war scenario is very much a possibility. No reasonable person, at this stage, can say that our concerns were irrational. What looks irrational now — and always did — is the demand for blind allegiance and unthinking “trust” in our elected leaders, as though we are called to have faith in politicians like we have faith in God.

In a separate post, Walsh wrote, “I in fact do not ‘trust the plan,’ especially when the exact plan is never coherently articulated. The idea that we should reserve criticism of our elected leaders on the vague assumption that there must be some sort of ‘plan’ that we mere mortals don’t understand is just embarrassing. How did ‘trusting the plan’ work during COVID? How has it ever worked?”

Walsh added in another post that most pro-war accounts have been giving “breezy assurances that there won’t be boots on the ground” in Iran. If that happens, Walsh told his followers to get ready for the “most shameless gaslighting campaign we’ve ever witnessed, as all of the same voices insist that no such assurances were given, and in fact we always knew there would be boots on the ground.”

While both Coulter and Walsh made it clear they are skeptical of how the war is being handled, recent polling shows Trump’s MAGA base overwhelmingly supports the war.

Just to point to a few examples, a Quinnipiac University poll earlier this month showed 85% of Republicans support military action against Iran, a YouGov-Economist poll found 91% of MAGA voters support the war, and CNN’s Harry Enten reported nearly 90% of MAGA is behind the war. 

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!