Tipsheet

Fox News Host Shot Down This Lib Talking Point About the Michigan Shooting With a Simple Line

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  September 30, 2025 12:45 AM

Scott covered this horrific shooting in Michigan over the weekend: a man, identified as Thomas Jacob Sanford, attacked a Mormon church in Grand Blanc, Michigan, killing four and setting the church on fire. Local police and a state natural resources officer encountered Sanford, where a gunfight ensued, and he was killed. Sanford was known to have expressed anti-Mormon views (via Detroit Free Press):

When Burton City Council candidate Kris Johns heard that someone shot churchgoers and burned down the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Sept. 28 in nearby Grand Blanc, he said not once did he think it was the man he spoke to while canvassing less than a week prior who went on a tirade against the church and described Mormons as "the antichrist."

The man was outgoing, polite, and "extremely friendly," Johns said. And his animosity toward the church didn't seem violent, he said — “it was very much standard anti-LDS talking points that you would find on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook.”

But Johns started seeing images on television and social media of law enforcement swarming the home he had just been to last week on East Atherton in Burton and had a bad feeling. Then he saw the man's photo circulating online.

The FBI has taken over the investigation as "targeted violence" after authorities say Sanford plowed his pickup truck that donned two American flags in the back into the small-town church, shot at the hundreds of worshippers inside, and burned the establishment down using gasoline. Improvised explosive devices were also found on scene, federal authorities confirmed.

And now, to fan the flames, we have Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) using Sanford's MAGA support as a point from which he can lecture us about political violence. Get stuffed, man. Liberals are five times more likely to endorse or support political violence. Second, we're not going around calling Mormons fascist threats to the country, who must be stopped by any means necessary. We've never said we're at war with Mormons. Democrats have said that about us; Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said that days before Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University in Orem on September 10. 

So, this 'he's a Trump supporter' line falls flat, like all Democrat talking points do. Jessica Tarlov mentioned this on The Five, and co-host Jesse Watters shot it down with a simple line: "We're not inciting people to go kiII Mormons, like you're inciting people to attack ICE."

They know their side has a political violence problem and was desperately trying to use another incident of death and destruction to distract us. It won’t work, especially if Swalwell, one of the most insufferably stupid members of Congress, is quarterbacking it.