George Washington home holds a notable birthday auction

NEWS AND OPINION:

In need of something historic — or historically minded? Now underway at Mount Vernon, the ancestral home of George Washington, is the George Washington Birthday Auction.

The event is online — and interested folks can bid on a wide array of 604 items — which include original artworks, assorted personal “experiences,” sailing excursions, out-of-town getaways, wine, bourbon, honey, folk art, private dinners, historic china, books, linens, home accessories and jewelry.

A “VIP Tour of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library” is even up for bids.

Find the auction at MountVernon.org. Bidding continues until Feb. 22.

SEN. TIM SCOTT’S BORDER SUMMARY

“Is the only option for people that want to secure the border to wait nine months and hope Donald Trump wins the election?”

That was the question that “Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade posed Tuesday to Sen. Tim Scott.

“Well, no doubt, Brian. We were certainly better off under Trump. We need him back again for four more years. But more importantly, President Biden undid the successful measures that Trump put in place. If you can undo them, you can put them back again,” the South Carolina Republican said.

“President Biden does not need legislative action to secure our border. That is simply a lie to the American people. What President Biden needs is intestinal fortitude to go ahead and do his job right now,” he continued.

“He could restore the ‘remain in Mexico’ policy. Instead of going towards catch and release, instead of allowing 5,000 illegal immigrants a day, which is about 1.8 million a year, why not finish the wall, secure our border, double the number of agents down there, and make America safer under his presidency?” Mr. Scott asked.

“But he’s more interested in the politics of immigration than he is solving the problem of the greatest invasion in American history coming across our illegal, open southern border,” he said.

And just in case you wonder, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers had 785,422 “encounters” with unauthorized people seeking to cross the southern border in October, November and December. And 44,801 entered the U.S. via the northern border with Canada in that same period.

ONE FOR THE TROOPS

A round of applause, please, for the Department of Defense, which is making sure that our troops overseas have access to live coverage of a noteworthy event come Sunday.

“The Defense Media Activity (DMA) and the American Forces Network (AFN) invite authorized overseas audiences to enjoy live coverage of Super Bowl LVIII on AFN global television, radio and streaming services,” the department said in a written statement.

“We are deeply grateful to the National Football League for their continuing, generous support and partnership with AFN enabling our U.S. troops overseas to enjoy the Super Bowl live. Providing U.S. forces serving overseas with this important touch of home directly supports military leaders by enhancing troop morale,” said Hal Pittman, DMA director, also in a written statement.

There’s some history here.

“On January 1, 1942, KODK at Fort Greely, then on the island of Kodiak, Alaska, began full-time operations and on May 26, 1942, the War Department officially established [the Armed Forces Radio Service] with the mission of providing programming, shortwave service and broadcast equipment for U.S. military locations overseas,” a brief but official history of the outreach said.

FOXIFIED

In the week of Jan. 29=Feb. 4, Fox News was once again the most-watched news network in the cable realm, drawing an average of 2 million viewers daily in prime time and 1.3 million during the day. Fox News also aired 79 of the top 100 cable newscasts that week.

Once again, “The Five” was the most watched program of all with an average daily audience of 3 million, followed by “Jesse Watters Primetime” (2.7 million), “Hannity” (2.3 million) and “The Ingraham Angle” (2.1 million).

Late-night funnyman Greg Gutfeld continues to trump the network competition with an average daily audience of 2.3 million, compared with CBS’ “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (1.9 million), NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” (1.3 million) and ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (also 1.3 million).

Maria Bartiromo’s “Sunday Morning Futures” — which featured an interview with former President Donald Trump — was the most-watched program of the weekend with 2 million viewers.

TUCKER CARLSON’S EXCURSION

Evolving media presence and former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson has kept to his claim that he would report from Russia, offering a four-minute video commentary on X outlining his rationale for interviewing Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Is the public heeding his message? It looks like it.

In less than an hour, 5 million people had watched his four-minute report, it had been retweeted 42,000 times, received 124,000 likes and drawn 11,000-plus comments.

Mr. Carlson founded the Tucker Carlson Network ­— an on-demand video streaming service — in December. He also revealed his motivation from the get-go.

“News coverage in the West has become a tool of repression and control. Reporters no longer reveal essential information to the public; they work to hide it. Journalists act as censors on behalf of entrenched power. They have contempt for the public. They hate the truth,” he said in a mission statement at the time.

“Democracy can’t function in a society like this. Voters can’t know what they’re voting for. People do understand they’re being manipulated, and they resent it. The population becomes angry and paranoid. Things fall apart. There’s only one solution to a propaganda spiral like the one we’re living through, and it’s telling the truth about the things that matter — clearly and without fear,” Mr. Carlson declared.

POLL DU JOUR

• 19% of registered U.S. voters consider themselves “very conservative” in their general approach to political issues.

• 18% consider themselves “somewhat conservative.”

• 36% consider themselves “moderate.”

• 13% consider themselves “somewhat liberal.”

• 11% consider themselves “very liberal.”

• 3% are not sure about the issue.

SOURCE: An NBC News poll of 1,000 registered U.S. voters conducted Jan. 26-30.

• Follow Jennifer Harper on X @HarperBulletin.