🧩 BND Motif Index · M699
Sympathy for the devil
A leader openly sympathizes with people accused of terrible things, worrying aloud that they won't get a fair shake, and the sympathy itself becomes the story.
- 5claims filed under it
- 4left shows it came up on
- 1claim retold online
- 1fact-checker
⚠️ 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
🔗 goes with: 🧩 He said, she said
🎙️ Who it came up with
the shows we follow where its claims came up, by the show's lean
🫏 left 4
🎙️ Hacks on Tap 🎙️ The Adam Mockler Show 🎙️ The Kyle Kulinski Show 🎙️ The Majority Report (podcast)
⚖️ center 0
🦗 none of our center shows, so far
🐘 right 0
🦗 none of our right shows, so far
"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.
🧶 Its claims
what's been told in this shape, newest first, in our words, with where each was heard
- 2026-10-23 “Donald Trump is defending a woman who made horrible statements about her daughter.”
🎙️ The Adam Mockler Show 🎙️ The Majority Report (podcast) - 2026-10-23 “Donald Trump sides with abusers because he identifies with them.”
🎙️ Hacks on Tap 🎙️ The Adam Mockler Show - 2026-10-21 “Mike Rogers argues that people who flew on Jeffrey Epstein's plane deserve protection from the court of public opinion.”
🎙️ The Kyle Kulinski Show - 2026-10-09 “Trump said he feels badly for 'Cornell 7' because they 'won't get a fair shake'.” 🔎 Snopes
- 2026-10-05 “Trump, a convicted rapist, expresses sympathy for the Cornell 7 accused rapists.” 🧶 people online
M699 · first seen 2026-10-09 · last 2026-10-27 · what this is · how the index works