It is Sunday, October the 12th. I'm Ali Velshi, and we begin this hour with a dangerous new

disinformation campaign coming from the White House, one that's playing a crucial role in accelerating

the authoritarian slide that we're witnessing unfolding in real time. Storytelling is central to consolidating

the kind of power that it takes to build an authoritarian regime. And right now, Donald Trump

is telling a story about crime, danger, and violence to justify a massive power grab and a brutal

crackdown on dissent. He's ordered unwanted, unwelcome,

unneeded, and legally dubious National Guard deployments to cities that are run by Democrats,

like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Portland, Oregon, claiming the streets of those American cities

are war-ravaged by crime, equating protests there to insurrection and calling for the

jailing of their leaders for standing in the way of his crackdown.

After the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the president released a video

condemning political violence. But instead of calling for calm across the board, he blamed

only the radical left, highlighting

incidents of violence against conservatives while conveniently omitting a long list of recent attacks

on Democrats, judges, and government workers.

Telling only half the story was no accident.

It was a deliberate attempt.

Trump is crafting a narrative in which the radical

left is portrayed as inherently violent, dangerous, and illegitimate.

I'll tell you something that's going to get me in trouble, but I couldn't care less.

The radicals on the right, oftentimes are radical because they don't want to see crime.

They don't want to see crime. They don't want to see crime.

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