In the closing days of the 2018 midterm election campaigns nationwide, President Trump and his allies seized on a group of desperate, unarmed, Central American refugees walking on foot through Mexico and toward the United States. The President and his loyalists railed against the group they called an “immigrant caravan.” Trump said that the group included gang members and “unknown Middle Easterners.” He also called the “caravan” “invaders.”

In the days leading up to the midterm elections, the president, joined by other conservatives including Fox News, focused with laser precision on inciting anti-immigrant fear and bigotry to motivate conservative voters.

On Monday, the day before the midterm elections, Fox News and Fox Business Network mentioned the “caravan” 86 times. On election day, Tuesday, Fox News and Fox Business Network mentioned the “caravan” half as often, 42 times. By Wednesday, the day after the election, the “caravan” was only mentioned 23 times on the Fox networks. If you do not count video clips of CNN’s Jim Acosta asking the president about the “caravan” during a heated exchange between the two at the president’s press conference, the number of Fox mentions drops even further.

The day after the midterms, the president gave an 81 minute long rambling, heated press conference. During that conference, he only mentioned the “caravan” one time. In contrast, over the weekend the president mentioned it 24 times during campaign rally appearances, that number does not include the president’s numerous tweets on the issue.

MSNBC’s Morning Joe co-hosts, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski joked about the sudden disinterest in the issue that only days prior conservatives claimed was a threat to national security. Brzezinski said, “But they thought it was such a big story!” Scarborough replied, “Did Hannity talk about smallpox coming to the country? This was an invasion that was going to threaten our way of life!”