This chapter summarises the methodology and contextual background for analysing the three controversial utterances from the 2020 and 2024 US presidential elections that sparked the polarised interpretations that are investigated in Chapters 4 and 5. This study employs a mixed qualitative and quantitative approach, analysing the immediate contexts, press responses, and the top 100 YouTube comments on video clips from reputable news outlets featuring the three controversial utterances under investigation. The first case study examines Trump’s kung flu nickname for COVID-19 from a 2020 rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that was widely criticised for its ethnically charged intertextual references. The second case study examines Trump’s comment at a 2024 Dayton, Ohio, rally, predicting a “bloodbath” if he was not re-elected. The third case study investigates Biden’s 2024 bullseye remark on a private donor call that was later criticised as incendiary after the 13 July 2024 assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. This sets the stage for the analyses in Chapters 4 and 5, exploring how context and audience schemata shape contested interpretations.