Donald Trump and the media: How the Waco siege spawned the MAGA cult

With a mighty voice he shouted: "Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird. — Revelation 18:2

Watching Donald Trump's arraignment and his subsequent attacks on the justice system, as he predicted nuclear Armageddon and called the U.S. a Third World country might, on any other day, have seemed odd.

But after many years of his bombast, it seemed as old and tired as Trump himself looked and sounded Tuesday night when he spoke to his faithful followers at Mar-a-Lago, hours after making history by becoming the first president ever indicted for a felony. We heard his standard stump speech, his "Final Battle" war cry and his junkyard dog yelp about how badly he is victimized. He invoked fears of apocalyptic doom. "Our country is going to hell," he claimed. Nuclear war? We're "not too far away from it."

Trump told us once again that he'd gotten the most votes of any sitting president in history during the 2020 election. Congratulations. Of all the losers in history, Trump comes in first. He's the biggest loser.

Trump began his speech by saying, "I never thought anything like this could happen in America," which was another way of saying "I thought my privilege protected me."

It was a bittersweet moment: No one is above the law, which is as it should be. But we have a former president who is of such low character that he got indicted for paying off a porn star. (And a former Playboy model. And a Trump Tower doorman.)

The press? We gave Trump ample oxygen for his vile behavior — almost as much as Lesley Stahl gave Marjorie Taylor Greene on "60 Minutes" Sunday night. The press and Trump walk hand in hand in this fiasco. He loves the attention, the American people love to look at him either in awe or revulsion and the press happily feeds the fire.

We fall for Trump every time. He invoked the same fire and brimstone imagery at Mar-a-Lago after his indictment that he invoked in his Waco rally in late March. That is not a coincidence.

This month we acknowledge the 30th anniversary of the Branch Davidian siege at Waco that helped spawn  the rise of militias, strengthened the NRA and gave birth to the fear of the "deep state." Trump is celebrating it because he knows who his core supporters are — the same people who venerate the Branch Davidians.

The key to understanding Trump and the press lies in Trump's affinity with Waco.

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The 51-day standoff at the Mount Carmel compound outside Waco began on Feb. 28, 1993 and ended in an inferno on April 19, 1993. It claimed the lives of 80 people, including 26 children and four ATF agents. 

Humans are not very good people. 

Within an hour after the story broke, our executive producer at "America's Most Wanted" assigned me to head to Waco. I got there about eight hours after the initial raid on the compound failed and was among the first non-local reporters on the scene. All we knew at first was that the ATF had tried to serve a warrant on a "heavily armed" cult and had been driven away after an extended firefight. The more we found out, the more horrified we became.

A two-man KWTX crew, including reporter John McLemore, risked their lives shooting video of the entire raid. They helped transport wounded ATF agents from the scene. They were first seen as heroes, but it wasn't long before some in the government accused them of tipping off the Branch Davidians. Playing the victim isn't unique to Donald Trump.

The Waco Tribune-Herald had been working on an investigative story about the Branch Davidians for eight months. Its reporters had uncovered allegations of stockpiling weapons as well as the abuse and sexual exploitation of children by David Koresh, the leader of the cult. 

The seven-part series published by the Tribune-Herald, "The Sinful Messiah," was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 and was lauded for its efforts as a "high-water mark for investigative reporting." It began with the words, "If you are a Branch Davidian Christ lives on a threadbare piece of land 10 miles east of Waco called Mt. Carmel."

It was source material for every reporter covering the siege.

One night, a Sky News anchor who had read the series asked me in a live shot if all cults in the United States were as "heavily armed as this one."  I had the sudden realization that to the rest of the world the U.S. was nothing more than a nation of insanely and obscenely armed hillbillies. I drew a blank.

"So, we understand there are a lot of cults in the United States, are they all as heavily armed as this one?" the anchor asked again.

"I certainly hope not," I deadpanned into the camera.

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The ATF got wind of the Davidians about the same time as the local newspaper. They successfully placed an undercover agent inside the cult and concentrated on its stockpile of illegally converted weapons. They knew Koresh loved guns. He was charged with attempted murder in 1987 when he and a cult rival got into a gun battle over control of the group (originally an offshoot of the Seventh-day Adventists). No one died, but Koresh placed a couple of bullets in non-lethal areas of his rival's body. This scenario is known in Texas as "He didn't get shot right."

While you try to figure out what that means, I'll tell you what some of the deputies I spoke with said during the Waco standoff. In 1987, the sheriff drove to Mount Carmel, knocked on the door and said, "Vernon, want you to come on out now. Give up your guns. You beat the rap, and you can keep the guns." That would be Vernon Howell, who later changed his name to David Koresh. He did both — peacefully.

The ATF chose a different tactic six years later. 

They decided to rush the compound, a move that depended entirely on the element of surprise — which they learned from their undercover agent before the raid that they did not have.

So agents tried to execute a warrant facing a trained, committed opponent with home-court advantage, superior firepower and a well-fortified position. The arrogance and ignorance of the ATF proved lethal to its own people. 

It was stupid and senseless. At one of the first briefings I asked why the ATF hadn't followed the local sheriff's lead and just knocked on the door. I was told that might have gotten somebody shot. That answer made no sense then and even less now. The ATF also knew Koresh's daily routine on and off Mount Carmel, and could have picked him up with little fanfare, as Koresh himself told negotiators during the siege. 

After the raid failed, the FBI (which took over the siege) added insult to injury and used psychological warfare techniques against the highly motivated apocalyptic cult.  

Hearing dial tones, babies crying and inane songs blasted at insane levels over loudspeakers at night may have worked on Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, but this was Texas. The FBI didn't soften the Davidians' commitment. They hardened it. On the upside, they did anger a lot of reporters who were unhappy to learn how well those annoying sounds carried through the rural Texas night air. 

At one point, FBI negotiators pulled off an improbable feat: Hardcore Davidian Kathy Schroeder surrendered so she could care for her infant son, who'd previously been released. The world, including Koresh and other cult members, got to see her almost immediately arrested and handcuffed. So much for being able to care for her toddler.

That was not the incentive the negotiators were hoping for. No one else surrendered after Schroeder left Mount Carmel.

After seven weeks of stalemate that the government helped cause, Justice Department officials complained that the operation was costing a million dollars a day. President Bill Clinton told Attorney General Janet Reno to do what she thought was best. Unfortunately, Reno relied upon the ATF and the FBI for advice.  So the FBI breached the compound with a tank, planted tear gas and tried to force the cultists out into the sunlight where they could be arrested.

That isn't what happened.

Again, the government badly misjudged the commitment of the Branch Davidians. Koresh, a wannabe rock star and capable con man, had his guitar, a recording studio, all the food he needed and approximately 40 women he considered his wives in the compound with him. He and his followers thought he was the messiah. The Schroeder incident proved they couldn't trust the government. After being wounded in the initial raid, Koresh was intent on being a martyr. 

Logic dictated that the Davidians weren't coming out. The locals knew it and sold T-shirts that said "WACO — We Ain't Comin' Out!" Naturally they sold well. I probably still have one somewhere.

What the FBI and ATF did in Waco was not a high point on anyone's résumé. When the flames died down and the charred remains of the children were found at Mount Carmel, law enforcement tried to blame the media. But the press did its job, none more so than the KWTX crew who put their lives at risk to cover the story and those, like Mark England and Darlene McCormick, who investigated Koresh for the local paper. 

Those local reporters led the way. And because of their efforts, all of us who followed knew the facts. Everyone understood the seriousness of the story and the need to get it right. I believe I was the first reporter to do a live shot from Waco for the fledgling Fox network. Afterwards, there was no propaganda video denying what we all knew had actually happened. We were better then.

Today, state governments in Florida and elsewhere want to introduce bills mandating "media responsibility" — which actually means media suppression. If only the government took as much care to fix its problems as it does trying to silence reporters who tell us about those problems, the world might be a better place. 

Waco was the tragedy that should have been a national wake-up call. It mostly woke up those who are now hardcore Trump supporters.

When President Clinton walked into the Rose Garden to announce the destruction of the compound and to tell us Koresh was both dead and insane (or maybe it was the other way around) I marveled at how he ignorantly, arrogantly and somehow piously accepted blame he hadn't entirely earned while ruthlessly defending the bad decisions of the ATF and the FBI.

Two years later, on April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh, whom many of us reporters had met when he sold bumper stickers outside Waco, helped kill 168 people when he bombed the Murrah Federal Building  in Oklahoma City. He timed the date for the anniversary of the Waco tragedy.

*  *  *

Watching Donald Trump weave his doomsday warnings into his self-centered rant Tuesday night drove home just how much like Koresh he really is — and how blinded those who follow him are. His followers are worshippers. The men consider themselves messiahs, but are actually con men who exploit women and children, and ultimately pull the strings that led to their own demise.

What stays with me most these 30 years later is how gleefully ignorant we still are. Some of us still fall for the con. Some of us mindlessly support the stupidity and arrogance of government, political extremism, and religions or institutions that allow you to commit murder and mayhem without guilt or conscience.

Waco cannot be minimized. 

Thirty years later, we have Donald Trump. He has arrived at this "inflection point," to quote Joe Biden, flying by the seat of his soiled pants. After years of grifting, he has finally found a group that would never leave his side. They'll remain loyal as long as he plays their favorite hits: Deep state, conspiracy, guns and apocalypse. While he whines about his "victimization" he also tells them, like Koresh before him, that their cause is noble. They believe him.

This group is committed. They cannot be intimidated. They can't be reasoned with and they won't follow logic or facts. Like the Branch Davidians, they have invented their own reality.

Like Koresh, Trump paints himself as a messiah. It is just another of his endless false claims. Like Koresh, he is a continuing danger, a menace and a coward.

But as Trump faces many other potential criminal charges — all more serious than those he faces in Manhattan, — as well as civil lawsuits, don't worry about him turning Mar-a-Lago into a second Mount Carmel. Trump is the Daffy Duck of cowards. He's a craven, greedy little coward. He is the new David Koresh. But he won't end with a bang. He'll end with a whimper. 

As for his worshippers taking up violence, we already live in a violent country. With more than 130 mass shootings in our country already this year, at the rate of 1.5 every day, what more can Trump's Davidian-like cultists do? 

I don't worry about that. With Trump's first indictment, I hope we're finally waking up.