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🧩 BND Motif Index · M1754

Revenge tour

When power changes hands, the incoming side is said to be readying to come after everyone who served or backed the old one, its leader, family, officials, donors and companies, with hearings, subpoenas, impeachments and prosecutions, and every promise of oversight is heard as the opening of that campaign.

📜 Plots🗂️ Coercion and Intimidation🗂️ Crime and punishment🗂️ Elections

⚠️ A story people tell, not a claim that it's true.

A motif is the shape of a story as its tellers tell it, named the way a folklorist names a tale type, so the same story told about other people, by the other side or in another year lands in the same place. Some of the claims below are true, many are false. Arguing against a story is often a story of its own, its answer (Voter fraud is answered by Voter suppression, Lawfare by No one is above the law), and we file it there; where no answer has a motif yet, the arguments against a story sit with its tellings.

🪜 Its family

what it rests on, what rests on it, and the motifs that answer it

🪜 rests on 🧩 Lawfare 🧩 Political retaliation

↔️ answers and mirrors:

🎙️ Who it came up with

the shows we follow where its claims came up (8 left-leaning, 7 center, 16 right-leaning so far), colored by the show's lean; the bar is how many of its claims each one heard

  1. 🐘 Timcast IRL (podcast) 10 claims
  2. 🐘 The Mark Levin Show 9 claims
  3. 🐘 Verdict with Ted Cruz 8 claims
  4. 🐘 Bannon's War Room 7 claims
  5. 🐘 Clay Travis & Buck Sexton 7 claims
  6. 🐘 The Dan Bongino Show 7 claims
  7. 🫏 David Pakman Show (podcast) 5 claims
  8. 🐘 PBD Podcast (podcast) 5 claims
  9. 🐘 The Megyn Kelly Show 5 claims
  10. 🫏 The MeidasTouch Podcast 5 claims
  11. 🐘 The Jesse Kelly Show 4 claims
  12. 🐘 The Michael Berry Show 4 claims
➕ 20 more shows

🎙️ 20 more shows

  1. 🐘 Fox News Rundown 3 claims
  2. ⚖️ WSJ What's News 3 claims
  3. ⚖️ BBC Global News Podcast 2 claims
  4. ⚖️ Breaking Points 2 claims
  5. 🐘 Morning Wire 2 claims
  6. ⚖️ Politico Playbook 2 claims
  7. 🐘 The Benny Show 2 claims
  8. 🔀 The Tim Dillon Show 2 claims
  9. 🫏 Today in Focus (Guardian) 2 claims
  10. 🫏 Today, Explained 2 claims
  11. ⚖️ Up First (NPR) 2 claims
  12. ⚖️ 1A (WAMU/NPR) 1 claim
  13. 🐘 Ruthless 1 claim
  14. 🫏 The Adam Mockler Show 1 claim
  15. ⚖️ The Brian Lehrer Show (WNYC) 1 claim
  16. 🫏 The Bulwark Podcast 1 claim
  17. 🐘 The Matt Walsh Show 1 claim
  18. 🫏 The Young Turks (podcast) 1 claim
  19. 🫏 To the Contrary with Charlie Sykes 1 claim
  20. 🐘 Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words 1 claim

"Came up on" means one of its claims was heard on the show: told, reported or argued against. We don't yet mark which. Show leans are our own grouping of the shows we transcribe.

📰 In the news

the stories its claims were told about, the most told first (matched by our tools, so a link can be wrong)

🗣️ In so many words

the words that carry it

💬 the tellers' own words: “Democrats have vowed to remove him from office.” “Democrats will get into office and immediately start investigating Trump and his officials... The harassment will be relentless.” “Dems have already started to pivot from affordability to we're going to get our political enemies.” “I already see the media framing of like, oh, well, you don't want to just go for retribution.” “I do think that there will be plans to impeach at least Pete Hegseth” “I think the Democrats will use impeachment as a vehicle to highlight those issues.” “If dems spend most of their time on subpoenas and investigations, they will look exactly like the hideous republicans seeking revenge.” “IMHO this bumps Todd Blanche up on the impeachment list ahead of Hegseth.” “Impeach Blanche. Same with RFK Jr., Hegseth, Miller et al.” “The Democrats are going around threatening a lot of people... with impeachment and many other forms of punishment” “There will be some who will be pushing for this idea of retribution.” “These same Dems can haul Blanche in before Congress so please proceed.”

🧶 Its claims

what's been told in this shape, in our words, by who told it: newest first in each; a claim's dots are the shows it came up on, in their lean's color (point at them for their names)

Told on the left 2

claims heard on left-leaning shows, and no right-leaning one

  • 2026-11-08 “Trump calls Democrats threatening impeachment and prosecution of his officials and donors extortionists who should be imprisoned, and orders the DOJ to treat it as criminal.” 1
  • 2026-11-06 “Democrats will use congressional committees to investigate the president's family, cabinet, and donors.” 2

Told on the right 17

claims heard on right-leaning shows, and no left-leaning one

  • 2026-11-10 “Democrats are said to plan impeachments as a vehicle to push corruption themes against the administration; critics call it a coup.” 1
  • 2026-11-09 “Democrats want a nonstop assault of impeachment proceedings to drive down President Trump's approval ratings.” 2
  • 2026-11-06 “Incoming Oversight chair Robert Garcia vows to investigate the Trump family; critics call him a radical nut leading a Stalin-like investigation.” 1
  • 2026-11-05 “If Democrats win, they will impeach on day one, open the borders and weaponize government against Trump's officials with endless hearings.” 1
  • 2026-11-03 “Democrats are said to plan investigations of Trump's family and officials: overreach, harassment and lawfare to some, aggressive accountability to others.” 1
  • 2026-11-02 “Democrats will use the power of government to target and prosecute people who supported Donald Trump.” 5
  • 2026-10-31 “Democrats intend to investigate influential Republicans and their associates to intimidate them.” 1
  • 2026-10-30 “Democrats plan to weaponize the government to target citizens if they win.” 7
  • 2026-10-26 “Democrats plan to use prosecutions and investigations to solidify their power.” 4
  • 2026-10-26 “Democrats would turn the Texas Attorney General's office into a mini Obama-Biden Department of Justice to destroy Texas.” 2
  • 2026-10-26 “Democrats are said to unleash the DOJ and FBI on Trump, his family and anyone who aided his administration.” 1
  • 2026-10-25 “Democrats want to attack Elon Musk because he supported Donald Trump and wants to cut government spending.” 6
  • 2026-10-24 “The establishment fears Elon Musk because of his individual power.” 1
  • 2026-10-22 “Democrats intend to use investigations and subpoenas as revenge against the Trump administration.” 2
  • 2026-10-22 “Lawfare against conservatives will worsen if Democrats retain control of the House or Senate.” 2
  • 2026-10-22 “Alyssa Slotkin wants to prosecute political opponents as a form of deterrence.” 4
  • 2026-10-21 “Alyssa Slotkin wants to punish anyone who served in the Trump administration.” 1

Told on both sides 8

claims heard on left- and right-leaning shows alike

  • 2026-11-09 “Democrats are planning a two-year onslaught of relentless impeachments, investigations, and subpoenas.” 3
  • 2026-11-06 “Democrats are behaving like fascists or communists in their pursuit of political investigations.” 10
  • 2026-11-05 “Democrats will target private corporations that collaborate with the Trump administration.” 6
  • 2026-11-04 “Democrats are expected to target Pete Hegseth and Elon Musk in ethical investigations and impeachment attempts.” 7
  • 2026-10-30 “Democrats plan to impeach Pete Hegseth because defending America has become an impeachable offense.” 8
  • 2026-10-25 “Democrats plan to prosecute people for supporting Donald Trump.” 17
  • 2026-10-13 “Democrats will launch impeachments and investigations if they take control of the House and Senate.” 4
  • 2026-10-05 “Democrats will use committee assignments to launch investigations against conservatives if they control the House.” 4

Told in the center 4

claims heard only on center or crossover shows

  • 2026-11-09 “Democrats may investigate Elon Musk over Starlink in Ukraine and DOGE; critics call it going after political enemies.” 1
  • 2026-11-09 “Hakeem Jeffries's talk of 'getting even' is said to cast holding the administration to account as inappropriate revenge.” 1
  • 2026-11-08 “Democrats may seek to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other cabinet members.” 3
  • 2026-11-05 “House Democrats are said to be preparing investigations of Trump's administration, family and allies: accountability for corruption to some, revenge and deterrence to others.” 🎙️ on the shows

Retold online 2

claims many people posted in their own words

  • 2026-11-09 “Democrats are urged to use their mandate against Trump: pass popular bills he must veto, and investigate and prosecute his administration.”
  • 2026-11-09 “Todd Blanche should be impeached and indicted.”

M1754 · first seen 2026-11-09 · last 2026-11-10 · what this is · how the index works

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