In January 2026, a U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good during a surge of ICE operations in Minneapolis. The killing sparked outcry nationwide, leading to tensions between protesters and law enforcement — particularly in Minneapolis itself.
President Donald Trump and his administration responded by increasing the number of federal officers deployed to the city and Minnesota as a whole, even threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act to use the U.S. military to quell protests.
In that environment, a rumor spread on Facebook (archived) that David Muir, host of ABC News' primetime broadcast, issued a dire on-air warning about the direction the administration was taking. The rumor, which numerous Snopes readers emailed us about and searched the site for, shared Muir's apparent words in a dramatic retelling that included a link to a blog post for more information. The post began:
"ARE YOU BLIND TO WHAT'S COMING, OR ARE YOU JUST AFRAID TO SAY IT OUT LOUD?" David Muir snapped, his voice cutting through the studio like a blade.
The room fell silent. Cameras kept rolling as tension thickened the air. Muir leaned forward, eyes blazing, no longer hiding his fury. "I'm telling you right now," he continued, "this chaos isn't accidental. This pandemonium? It's fuel. It's a setup."
A panelist tried to interrupt, but Muir raised his hand sharply. "No—listen. When streets burn and institutions crack, that's when dangerous men make their move. Trump doesn't fear disorder. He needs it."
He paused, letting the words sink in. "Martial law. Emergency powers. Suspended norms. And suddenly—no midterms."
The story was not a factual retelling of something Muir said during one of his newscasts. It had all the hallmarks of the type of story generated by artificial intelligence tools that are commonplace on Facebook. Therefore we've rated the claim false.
Snopes searched online for Muir's name alongside the "blind" quote and alongside the phrase "martial law," which the post included in Muir's supposed warning. Neither search revealed credible reporting on Muir's supposed speech, and the search with the quote almost exclusively returned other Facebook posts sharing the exact same story.
Neither the post itself nor the blog it linked to noted when Muir "snapped" on air or to what particular event Muir was reacting. Nonetheless, because the post was posted the afternoon of Jan. 14, Snopes searched episodes of Muir's nightly newscast from Jan. 10 to 13 to find when Muir "snapped." Muir did not give the speech on the 10th, 11th, 12th or 13th.
The closest Muir came to saying anything like he did in the Facebook post was on Jan. 13, when he reported Trump warned of "a day of reckoning and retribution that is coming over opposition to his immigration policies." The "day of reckoning and retribution" was a direct quote from a Trump social media post (archived).
The blog linked in the post spreading the Muir rumor was filled with advertisements, just like those linked in many other AI-generated stories of celebrities rampant on Facebook. The goal of these posts is to drive traffic to blogs filled with numerous AI-generated stories each day so the owners can make money from advertising revenue.
A popular genre of these posts are those in which the figure shocks a room by suddenly speaking out about politics or some other issue. The writing is often dramatic and punchy, full of short sentences and reminders of the meaning of the subject's words or actions. Similar writing appeared in AI-generated Facebook posts about Barron Trump, Helen Mirren, Stephen Colbert and Bette Midler Snopes has fact-checked.
The page that posted the story, Clarity Newsline, appeared to exclusively post AI-generated stories about Muir. The baseless stories were written in the same style consistent with AI-generated writing and linked to advertisement-filled blogs hosted on the same website.