Faulty reasoning signals

• Negativity Bias - 28.1%
• Appeal to Authority - 20.3%
• Framing Effect - 17.7%

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Screenshot via @VoteMarsha on X Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) smashed fortune cookies into crumbs while declaring she would “stop Communist China” in a video posted Wednesday on X as part of her Tennessee gubernatorial campaign . “How hard am I gonna crack down on China?” Blackburn said in the video, sitting in what looks to be a caricature of a Chinese restaurant, complete with takeout boxes and lanterns hanging from the ceiling. “Well, here’s a clue.” It doesn’t take a fortune cookie to figure it out… As your governor, I’ll continue to work with President Trump to STOP Communist China and PROTECT Tennessee land. pic.twitter.com/XHAJb3OOu1 - Marsha Blackburn (@VoteMarsha) July 8, 2026 She then proceeded to crumble up multiple cookies with her hands, letting the crumbs fall on the table while staring into the camera. A narrator’s voice read, “Marsha Blackburn worked with President [ Donald ] Trump to take on Communist China. As governor, Marsha will fight to protect Tennessee land from Chinese front companies, close loopholes, and hunt down every Communist who tries to defy us.” “It doesn’t take a fortune cookie to figure it out,” Blackburn concluded. “Here in Tennessee, we’re gonna stop Communist China and protect Tennessee land.” The video ended with what sounded like a gong and an image of a maneki-neko—the “beckoning cat” figurine commonly sold in Chinatowns around the world, despite its Japanese origins . Not to mention, despite their association with Chinese restaurants in the United States, fortune cookies are widely believed to have originated in California, not China. While their exact history remains disputed, many historians credit Japanese immigrant Makoto Hagiwara with popularizing the modern fortune cookie at San Francisco’s Japanese Tea Garden in the early 20th century. A competing claim from a Chinese-American baker in Los Angeles has persisted for decades, but a 1983 “Court of Historical Review” in San Francisco symbolically ruled in Hagiwara’s favor . Importantly, Trump has maintained that he won’t make an endorsement in the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary between Blackburn and Rep. John Rose (R-TN), despite more than $1 million in new PAC ads featuring clips of the president praising her. The post Republican Senator Crumbles Fortune Cookies While Vowing to ‘Stop Communist China’ first appeared on Mediaite .