To the Video:  As Fox News host Tucker Carlson went on the air again last night denying the severity of the January 6^th insurrection, further documents from the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit showed that many Fox hosts, producers, and even company chairman Rupert Murdoch didn’t believe claims aired on the network that the 2020 election was rigged.

  In his deposition, Murdoch rejected conspiracy theories that Dominion had helped sway the election to Joe Biden

  “Do you believe that Dominion was engaged in a massive and coordinated effort to steal the 2020 presidential election?” Dominion lawyers asked.

  “No,” Murdoch answered.

  “Have you ever seen any credible evidence to suggest that Dominion was engaged in a massive and coordinated effort to steal the 2020 presidential election?” he was asked.

  “No,” Murdoch replied.

  Even while he was airing claims of election fraud, Carlson wrote in a January 4, 2021, text message that he hated then-President Donald Trump “passionately.” He said, “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights.” 

  US Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger denounced Carlson for his Monday night portrayal of the January 6^th insurrection as mostly peaceful.

  In an internal memo, Menger called Carlson’s description of the Capitol security video “offensive and misleading.” He said, “The program conveniently cherry-picked from the calmer moments of our 41,000 hours of video. The commentary fails to provide context about the chaos and violence that happened before or during these less tense moments.”

  But again last night, Carlson said “It was neither an insurrection, nor deadly.” 

  Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer called Carlson “a propagandist publicly pretending to be a news man.” Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer called Carlson’s reports “bullshit.” 

  Last night though, Carlson continued with a sneering dismissal of his critics, both Democrat and Republican. And then, after his description of January 6^th as mostly peaceful, he criticized then Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Capitol Police for not being prepared for the Capitol to be stormed. 

Taken: Two Americans have been found alive and two dead after the party of four friends was shot at then abducted last Friday shortly after crossing the Texas border into Matamoros, Mexico.

  Mexican authorities say one of the survivors is wounded. A Mexican woman was killed by a stray bullet a block from the abduction.

  Three friends were accompanying a woman in the group going for tummy tuck surgery when gunmen in body armor fired on their white minivan. The gunmen then hauled the four into the back of a pickup and drove off.

  Mexico says at least one person has been arrested in connection with the incident, which may have been pulled off by members of a drug cartel. The early theory is that the gunmen thought the people in the car were members of another cartel. John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, told reporters that the US was working with Mexico to learn more.

Econ 101: Stocks slipped yesterday after federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said interest rates might be raised higher than expected in reaction to the hot and inflationary economy. 

  The Fed last year raised interest rates from nearly zero to 4.5 percent. But hiring, consumer spending, and inflation continue to rise. “The process of getting inflation back down to 2 percent has a long way to go and is likely to be bumpy,” Mr. Powell said in his remarks. “The latest economic data have come in stronger than expected, which suggests that the ultimate level of interest rates is likely to be higher than previously anticipated.”

In the Hole: President Biden on Thursday is expected to propose ways to trim the federal deficit by at least $2 trillion over the next 10 years. In the face of Republican threats to refuse raising the debt limit, he’s got to do something.

  He is expected to rely on tax increases on corporations and high earners along with spending reductions, including allowing Medicare to negotiate the price of certain prescription drugs.

The War Room: Ukraine is outraged by a video showing one of its soldiers executed by Russians. Tymofiy Shadura stood in a trench smoking a cigarette and said “Glory to Ukraine” moments before he was shot.

  New intelligence reviewed by US officials suggests that a pro-Ukrainian group blew up Nord Stream natural gas pipelines last year, The NY Times reports.

  The paper reports that US officials said they had no evidence that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky or his lieutenants were involved in the operation or gave orders for it to be carried out. The gas pipelines from Russia supply Western Europe, and who cut them off has been a mystery.

  Ukraine has been a suspect because they always opposed the building of the pipelines. 

The Spin Rack:  The US economy could quickly lose a million jobs and slide into recession if Congress fails to raise the nation’s debt limit before the federal government is no longer able to pay its bills on time, Mark Zandi the chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, warned a Senate panel on Tuesday. — California will stop all business with the Walgreens drug chain, Gov. Gavin Newsom said, because the chain announced that it will not dispense abortion medication in 21 Republican-dominated anti-abortion states. He didn’t say what business the state has with Walgreens. — Five women have sued the State of Texas claiming the state’s limits on abortion have endangered their lives. They say that doctors have been afraid to perform abortions for fear of prosecution even in cases of medical necessity. — A federal judge in Missouri struck down a law that would penalize police in that state for enforcing federal gun laws. US District Judge Brian Wimes said Missouri’s Second Amendment Preservation Act violated the standard that federal law supersedes state law.

Below the Fold: Sixty-four-year-old pop star Madonna is dating a 29-year-old boxer, but she’s had so much facial surgery he probably doesn’t know who she is. 

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