MAGA’s Leaky Narrative

For weeks, Donald Trump and his allies insisted they had uncovered a shocking act of Democratic vandalism at one of America’s most recognizable landmarks. But on Friday afternoon, his administration was forced to concede that the man it had accused of carrying out the attack had done nothing wrong.

In a court filing, former Fox News host-turned-U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro asked a judge to dismiss the federal indictment against U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn, who had been arrested and publicly accused by Pirro of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Pirro acknowledged that investigators had concluded the damage wasn’t caused by Hearn after all, but by a “flawed installation” of the pool’s newly installed liner.

The filing also contained a remarkable bit of finger-pointing: Pirro blamed the Trump administration’s own Interior Department for withholding information that could have prevented the prosecution from moving forward. She wrote that officials at the Doug Bergum-led agency failed to disclose that the pool’s liner had been improperly installed, despite “dozens and dozens” of requests from prosecutors. “Had [the Interior Department] been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment,” Pirro acknowledged.

It was an extraordinary and embarrassing admission for the Trump administration which had spent weeks villainizing Democrats and seemingly random visitors to the reflecting pool for Trump’s $16 million renovation disaster.
In interviews and on social media, Trump repeatedly declared that “vandals” armed with box cutters and razor blades had destroyed the pool’s new blue lining. He posted pictures of a supposed “crazy pro-algae (likely paid) protestor” and even suggested ABC News’ Jonathan Karl could face federal scrutiny after the correspondent was “seen sticking his hand into the pool, and trying to rip the rubber off of the surface.”


MAGA Media and Fox News eagerly amplified the administration’s narrative. Jesse Watters devoted a primetime segment to Hearn’s arrest and whipped up claims of Democrats vandalizing the body of water, airing “exclusive” video of people touching the water. “DEM DONOR ARRESTED FOR POOL VANDALISM,” the chyron blared as Watters told viewers that Hearn was “a long time Democrat donor” who had contributed to Barack Obama and ActBlue. Fellow Fox host Laura Ingraham called on Democrats to denounce vandalism at the pool, and Sean Hannity decried “the near-constant vandalism from left-wing activists” and mocked Whoopi Goldberg for questioning whether supposed criminals were actually to blame for the reflecting pool debacle.

On Friday evening, after Pirro’s humiliating admission that there never was a vandal armed with a secret box cutter, the revelation wasn’t mentioned a single time on Fox News’ primetime programs, according to a Status review of transcripts. In fact, it was mentioned just once on the MAGA network’s air Friday, during Bret Baier’s program. Meanwhile on Fox News’ website, a single report on the administration’s reversal was buried in the site’s sports section.

But the embarrassment was too much for even CNN’s MAGA pundit Scott Jennings, who equated the administration’s rush to judgment on Friday evening to “a monkey having intimate relations with a football,” adding that Hearn “ought to sue anybody that he thinks he can to get his name back.”

Norm Eisen, whose Democracy Defenders Fund represented Hearn, also put it bluntly.

“The Trump administration’s case against Davey Hearn should have never been brought,” Eisen said in a statement. “Its dismissal today does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong. The government’s approach was ready, fire, aim. The administration owes Mr. Hearn an apology.”

If any of this sounds familiar, it’s because it is. Over and over again, Trump and his allies have pushed easily debunked claims on Fox News and across the MAGA Media ecosystem, inventing bogus narratives that millions come to believe as truth. But courtrooms operate differently. They don’t care about the chyrons or viral posts. They require proof. And in the case of Hearn, even Pirro was ultimately forced to admit that the story they had invented around the reflecting pool didn’t hold water.