HARRIS 2 VP

5 23 MEBBE PREMATURE nope

merri ok

3-fer target see misogyny

see anti-commie

see milley kelly oct surprise

see fox 9 on BS watters reparations

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dock strike boost inflation bs

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POD SAVE POST MORT 11 24 david p anti-incumb headwind basically insurmountable

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sp: not the sort to say i told you so ;)

renta: bitches be crazy

mma

April 18, 2025, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends

BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): So let's talk Democrats. And for the most part, you're looking at a party looking for leaders. But one thing they are getting is big crowds. And they're getting big crowds where Bernie Sanders and AOC are traveling around. They're going to areas, and there's definitely people out there when you have 49, you know, when you have millions of people vote for Democrats, you can get a big crowd. I'm astounded to see Yale University did a survey, and it says that AOC is now in the second spot behind Kamala Harris as the most popular, but she's supposed to be the working class socialist. A message to those that oligarchs are ruining this country, and the rich are gonna get richer unless she is voted in, and 83 year old Bernie Sanders is the nominal leader.

LAWRENCE JONES (CO-HOST): So you got Kamala Harris at the top of the list.

AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): It's — yes, you're right. Yeah.

JONES: She lost every swing state. The American people overwhelmingly rejected her. She was a bumbling mess on the campaign trail, could not complete her sentences accurately. No one really knew what she stood for. And then you got AOC that's right behind her, Ainsley.

EARHARDT: Is she tied with Cory Booker?

JONES: Exactly. A radical. The people in the country aren't gonna sign up for her agenda. I just think it's another double down on crazy.

EARHARDT: You know, this is what, this is what we all feared. I remember when Bernie Sanders came on the scene, and he said, ‘I'm a socialist.' We were like,‘What? No one's voting for you.' Now look at these crowds. This is where our country is going, and it is very, very scary. They are socialist. They are so far to the left. They are progressive.

### Fox's obsession with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

11/15/18 2:57 PM EST

### The right-wing grift industry has found a new favorite target: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

03/13/19 1:56 PM EDT

### Fox News legal contributor says he fears Trump administration won't “honor due process”

04/21/25

===

an 11 24

One common theme of 2024 election postmortems is that Vice President Kamala Harris lost to President-elect Donald Trump because her campaign was too far-left. Zeteo News editor-in-chief and CEO Mehdi Hasan took issue with that argument.

In a video posted to X, Hasan tore into Democratic establishment figures like James Carville and Adam Jentleson who said the "far left" was holding the Democratic Party "hostage." He blasted headlines in major media outlets like the Washington Post that read: Harris defeat is a stinging verdict for the left," and a New York Times op-ed titled: "When will Democrats learn to say no?"

"Are you f—ing kidding me? This is gaslighting of Trumpian proportions," Hasan said.

"There was nothing 'left wing' about Harris. I mean, the centrists literally got the presidential candidate they wanted: A tough-on-crime prosecutor who bragged about owning a gun and spoke about her love for a 'lethal' military," he continued. "A candidate who famously told migrants: 'Don't come to this country.'" And, during the one and only presidential debate, attacked Trump for not backing a bipartisan and very draconian border security bill."

Hasan went on to bash arguments that the vice president's campaign was too left-wing "ridiculous," "detached from reality" and "demonstrably and obviously false." He noted that she didn't once use the phrase "Latinx" or "defund the police" on the campaign stump, and "barely said anything about transgender rights." And he noted that in 2020, when "defund the police" was a more common saying, Democrats won the White House.

"It's as clear as day. Harris did not run a left-wing campaign. She didn't run on Medicare for All. She didn't run on student debt relief. She didn't run on a Green New Deal. And she didn't break with Joe Biden on Gaza," he said. "So when you say she ran 'left,' what on earth are you talking about?"

"This is a presidential candidate who campaigned way more with Liz Cheney and Mark Cuban than with AOC and Shawn Fain. Who listened to her brother-in-law, the chief legal officer of Uber, than to Bernie Sanders," Hasan added. "The truth is, in 2016 and again in 2020, the Democratic establishment united to block Bernie Sanders, an actual leftist, from becoming their nominee. And in 2024, due to Joe Biden's stubbornness, they didn't even have a contest, just a coronation."

"So look, the centrists, the moderates, got their candidate in every single election in which the Republicans nominated Donald Trump: 2016, Hillary Clinton. 2020, Joe Biden. 2024, Kamala Harris. And they lost to Trump two out of three times," he concluded. "And now they're going to blame the left for that? No f—ing way."

Watch Hasan's full video below, or by clicking this link.

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no lnx

alternet-

Until there’s a liberal media apparatus, the Democrats will live in Trump’s America

Donald Trump gestures next to Patty Morin, whose daughter Rachel was killed in Maryland last year, during a campaign rally at Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S., November 4, 2024. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

John Stoehr November 21, 2024

It takes time for things to stick properly, so please bear with me while I say again that Kamala Harris did not lose the election because of things she said. She lost because of things Donald Trump said she said.

So Democratic Party critics are basing their criticism not on what Harris said but on what Trump said she said, as they are accepting as true the allegations of the president-elect against the vice president.

By focusing on things that Trump said she said, rather than on things she said, these critics are missing the real lesson from the 2024 election – that her policies were not the determining factor in her defeat. It was the ear-splitting volume of the accusations against her and the absence of equal and opposite accusations against him.

In the final weeks of the election, the Trump campaign spent more than $29 million on television ads attacking Harris on trans rights. It was “by far, the biggest focal point when it comes to Trump’s ad spending — one of the best barometers of messaging priority there is,” wroteThe Bulwark’s Marc Caputo on October 24. “By contrast, the campaign has spent $5 million over that same time period on TV ads on the economy, making that topic their fifth-most emphasized.”

According to a new study by a Democratic pollster, Trump’s attack ads largely explain the outcome of the election. The report calculated the percentage of swing voters who voted for Trump in the belief that Harris supported federal funding of transgender surgeries on undocumented immigrants. It was a whopping 83 percent.

Conclusion:

“These voters — who remained open to persuasion until the very end — delivered not just a rejection of Harris but what they believed the Democratic Party stands for, absorbing rightwing narratives.”

Harris didn’t lose because of things she said.

She lost because of things Trump said she said.

Critics of the Democratic Party will point out that, ackshually, Harris did say she supported access to gender-transition care for undocumented immigrants. But that was once, in 2019, during her first run, and it wasn’t a campaign pledge. She wasn’t running on it. She gave an affirmative answer to an ACLU questionnaire. This year, her campaign explicitly rejected the questionnaire as having any bearing on her platform as the 2024 nominee. Indeed, she did what critics say she should do. She backed away from lefty woke things like trans rights.

And it didn’t matter.

It didn’t matter because what she said, the substance of her message wasn’t as important to the outcome of the election as the volume of it, which is to say, the substance of what she said could not be heard through the din of the rightwing media apparatus. As media expert Matthew Sheffield said today, nothing was going to get through that, not even the shared reality of the economy. “Through seven TV channels, more than 1,500 talk-radio stations, and millions of social media posts. Republicans sold a fictional narrative about the economy to unsuspecting Americans. Trump inherited a strong economy from Obama and then destroyed it. Democrats never told the story.”

They couldn’t. No one was listening, because no one could hear it. Trump’s attack ads worked in tandem with thousands of media sites, including the one formerly known as Twitter, that have been operating around the clock since 2020, often in parallel with the Washington press corps. They were able to take one small thing Harris said years ago and turn it into a caricature so ridiculous that a convicted felon like Donald Trump could look like a viable candidate by comparison.

It was so loud some voters didn’t know what the Democrats stand for.

And that includes some Democratic voters.

Harris won more votes than Trump did in 2020 (she now has 74.3 million to his 74.2), but she did not win as many as Joe Biden in 2020. (He won 81.3 million votes, the most ever, while Trump won 76.8 million this year, the second-most ever.) Where did they go?

You could say voter suppression laws, but I think a bigger source of “voter suppression” was lies and propaganda, directly or indirectly from rightwing media outlets or from anti-trans attack ads, or in the form of “false-flag efforts” funded by billionaires, including Twitter’s Elon Musk, to make Democratic voters feel like there’s no point in voting for Harris. “The entire goal of the campaign was to push her numbers down,” a top Trump adviser told the Post. Clearly, it worked.

The volume of the rightwing media apparatus, especially when it’s in sync with the Washington press corps, is so loud that it can feel like the ultimate arbiter of our political reality. As one CNN anchor put it this morning, this is Donald Trump’s America. We’re just living in it. Until there’s a liberal media apparatus, one that can meet bad info with good info, the Democrats will continue living in Trump’s America, too.

hibbs vph traitor

11/01/2024

Kyle Mantyla

Religious-right activist Gordon Klingenschmitt says that "if you're following Satan, you're probably for abortion and probably for Harris."

===

RACISM PLUS MISOGYNY ~ VPH

// msg pimp handler

Rudy Giuliani calls Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, “Fani the ho”

11/01/24 mma

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'Turn the page and put this junk behind us': Arnold Schwarzenegger endorses Kamala Harris an 10 24

the MRS did event with vph and liz cheney 10 24

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mma 10 24 distort vph econ policy

...* ## DISTORTION: Fox News falsely claimed Harris’ economic agenda constituted “reparations,” welfare, or bribes to Black voters

Harris has voiced support for Congress taking the lead on investigating reparations, which she reiterated during a September 17 interview hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists, but did not include reparations in any of her proposed economic policies.

- Fox host Jesse Watters attacked Harris’ Opportunity Agenda program as “reparations in disguise.” Watters also likened the program to “massive welfare checks” and asked, “How do you prove you're Black? I'm .1%. Do I qualify?” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [10/14/24]

- Watters called Harris' proposal to help Black-owned businesses “reparations” and “welfare,” adding, “She’s like DEI Santa Claus.” Watters ranted: “A forgivable loan is a welfare check. So, that's a $20,000 welfare check to a Black entrepreneur. … They're going to give 25 grand to first-time home buyers. That's reparations. She's like DEI Santa Claus.” Fox News, *The Five*, [10/15/24]

- On Special Report, podcast host Josh Holmes reduced Harris’ agenda to “a bunch of economic proposals that basically amount to legalizing drugs and exploring reparations.” Fox News, *Special Report with Bret Baier*, [10/15/24]

{ Watters argued that Harris’ failed promise of reparations has now led her to trying to “win the Black vote with free money and drugs.”}:Watters added: “Did Kamala even come up with this pitch? Or did her white handler sit around thinking, ‘Black people love handouts and getting high. Let's give this a shot.’” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [10/15/24]

===

mad sq garden comic ref pimps? took out C word but musk did it

NEW YORK — Donald Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday opened with speakers who made racist, sexist and crass remarks about Vice President Kamala Harris and Puerto Ricans.

It concluded with speeches from Trump, his wife, Melania, and billionaire Elon Musk arguing that Trump's the hopeful, optimistic choice.

Why it matters:Crude comments at Trump rallies aren't new. But many speakers at the rally unleashed rhetoric unprecedented in modern American history so close to an election.

And while the spectacle thrilled his supporters who were there for about seven hours, Democrats believe the divisive rhetoric will alienate swing voters as the candidates make their closing arguments.

Zoom in:Businessman Grant Cardone told the crowd that Harris "and her pimp handlers will destroy our country."

Trump's childhood friend David Rem called Harris "the anti-Christ"; former wrestler Hulk Hogan used a crude gesture while insinuating that Harris had slept her way to the top.

Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe said: "I don't know if you know this but there's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it's called Puerto Rico."

Other speakers talked about "f**king illegals" and called Hillary Clinton a "sick son of a bitch."

Trump told the crowdthat the U.S. "is now an occupied country," again described Democrats as the "enemy from within" and exaggerated claims about a "savage" Venezuelan gang in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colo.

The big picture: Several Democrats and even some Republicans told Axios they think the rally will wind up hurting Trump.

They said Sunday's spectacle satisfied his wish to have a rally at the iconic New York arena.

But they said it will remind voters — including those in swing states such as Pennsylvania, where 3.8% of the residents are of Puerto Rican descent — of the dark and race-baiting rhetoric that repelled them four years ago.

That belief is premised on the assumption that the more voters hear Trump, the less they'll like him. That won't become clear until the election.

Trump's campaign argued that the ubiquitous media coverage of the New York event made it a strategic victory regardless of the headlines.

Top Trump aide Jason Millertriumphantly posted a photoon X of 11 TV outlets carrying Trump's speech.

Even some Democrats fear that Trump continuing to suck up the media oxygen is making it more difficult for Harris to introduce herself to voters who say they don't know enough about her.

Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez tried to clean up after Hinchcliffe, saying his joke about Puerto Ricans "does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign."

Trump's teamhas been brimming with a confidence that some Republicans fear is hubris.

On Sunday, the campaign announced that Trump would have a rally in New Mexico in the final week before the Nov. 5 election.
A Republican hasn't won New Mexico in a presidential election since George W. Bush won the state in 2004.

Between the lines:During the rally, Harris was visiting a Puerto Rican restaurant in northern Philadelphia — providing a split screen to the scene at Trump's rally that was highlighted by Harris' campaign.

While visiting Freddy & Tony's Restaurant, Harris pledged to help fix Puerto Rico's electrical grid and create a "Puerto Rican Opportunity Economy Task Force."

The bottom line: In the campaign's final week, Harris is betting that enough voters will be repulsed by Trump and his supporters' behavior to vote for her.

Go deeper:GOP lawmakers slam "classless" Trump rally Puerto Rico joke |

===

mediaite

PAC founded by billionaire Elon Musk in support of Donald Trump dropped a new ad on Sunday labeling Vice President Kamala Harris “a C word” that America “can’t afford.”

Musk founded America PAC, a super PAC in support of Trump, in July of this year. He’s been speaking at rallies for Trump, including Sunday’s Madison Square Garden rally in New York City, and until recently was running a million-dollar-a-day contest for registered voters in swing states who signed a petition put out by the PAC. Those giveaways were suspended after a warning from the DOJ.

But the PAC has continued other activities, including campaign ads like the one shared Friday, which as of Sunday evening had just 155k views on X, formerly Twitter.

It begins with a “warning” that the ad contains “multiple instances of the ‘C word'” on a bright red warning screen, then moves to the main script, where it is “revealed” that the c-word in question is “communist.”

IFrame Content

America really can’t afford a ‘C-Word’ in the White House right now. 🤭

VOTE TODAY >> https://t.co/5VO60Egyob << VOTE TODAY pic.twitter.com/SrYzwgmWvv

— America (@america) October 25, 2024

Warning: This ad contains multiple instances of the ‘C Word.’ Viewer discretion is advised. Kamala Harris is a ‘C word.’ You heard that right. A big ole ‘C word.’ In fact, all of the other ‘C words’ think she’s the biggest ‘C word’ of them all. That’s right. She’s a tax-hiking, regulation-loving, gun-grabbing communist. And the worst part? She’s proud of it. Kamala Harris: the ‘C word America simply can’t afford. See you nationwide Tuesday, November 5th.

The post on X repeats the message, saying “America really can’t afford a ‘C-Word’ in the White House right now.🤭”

As of the time of this article, the social media post had just 45 likes on X.

===

mma

John Kelly warned that Trump is a fascist. Right-wing media absurdly claim by citing him that Kamala Harris is inspiring “assassins.”

PJ Media: “If you keep calling someone Hitler, eventually, someone will feel morally obligated to take action”

Written by Charis Hoard

Published 10/25/24 mma

This week, retired Gen. John Kelly -- former chief of staff to former President Donald Trump -- asserted in interviews with The New York Times that he believed Trump “falls into the general definition of fascist” and that he has previously praised Adolf Hitler.

Vice President Kamala Harris echoed the sentiments during her town hall on Wednesday night when asked about Kelly’s comments, sending right-wing media into an uproar.

In a desperate attempt to spin the serious remarks about Trump into a negative story about Harris, right-wing media figures attacked the Democratic nominee, calling her hypocritical, claiming that she was repeating unsubstantiated claims, and suggesting she’s inciting violence against Trump by agreeing with Kelly’s comments.

## Trump’s former chief of staff said Trump “falls into the general definition of fascist,” which Harris echoed during her town hall

- Kelly claimed that Trump “falls into the general definition of fascist” in a series of interviews with The New York Times. Kelly also claimed that Trump has previously expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler, and he told The Atlantic that Trump had previously said, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had.” The New York Times, [10/22/24; The Atlantic, 10/22/24]

- During a CNN town hall on Wednesday night, Harris echoed Kelly’s statement, agreeing that Trump “is a fascist.” Harris asserted multiple times that she believes Trump is a fascist, saying that, if reelected, Trump would be “a president who admires dictators and is a fascist.” The Associated Press, [10/24/24]

- In response to her comments, Trump attacked Harris on Truth Social, calling her a “Threat to Democracy” who is “increasingly raising her rhetoric” against him.Trump: “Comrade Kamala Harris sees that she is losing, and losing badly, especially after stealing the Race from Crooked Joe Biden, so now she is increasingly raising her rhetoric, going so far as to call me Adolf Hitler, and anything else that comes to her warped mind. She is a Threat to Democracy, and not fit to be President of the United States — And her Polling so indicates!” Truth Social, [10/23/24]

## Right-wing media attacked Harris for echoing Kelly’s remarks, calling her hypocritical, claiming that she was repeating “unsubstantiated claims,” and saying she was inciting violence against Trump

- Townhall's site Twitchy suggested Harris is hypocritical for agreeing with Kelly after previously criticizing him.Twitchy referenced a 2019 post from Harris where she asserted that Kelly “was the architect of the Trump Administration's cruel child separation policy,” saying that Democrats “really turned on a dime when it comes to trusting Kelly’s integrity.” Twitchy, [10/24/24; Twitter/X, 5/3/19]

- Conservative writer John Solomon claimed that Harris had previously “declared John Kelly had an ‘inability to speak truth to power,’” and claimed that “reporters who covered Harris’ attack conference had an obligation to report this.” Twitter/X, [10/24/24]

* PJ Media posted a piece titled “Kamala Harris Is Trying to Get Trump Shot at Again.” The piece noted, “If you keep calling someone Hitler, eventually, someone will feel morally obligated to take action. This isn’t just innocent hyperbole: it’s a calculated narrative meant to provoke. For years, Democrats and media figures have portrayed Trump not as a political adversary but as an existential threat. That’s how we’ve ended up with two assassination attempts within just nine weeks.” PJ Media, [10/24/24]

- The Washington Free Beacon claimed that Harris wrongly characterized Trump as “increasingly unstable and unfit to serve,” asserting that she was pushing “fear” as a campaign message.The article also highlighted Harris’ previous criticisms of Kelly, saying she “once denounced [him] as ‘cruel’ and ‘unethical.’” The Washington Free Beacon, [10/24/24]

* The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway posted that Harris’ closing argument is: “We need Trump's cholesterol numbers and he has secretly told John Kelly evil things he's never told anyone else.” Hemingway: “Trump closing argument: ‘I'll fight for you and do for you what I did before on the economy, foreign policy, border, etc.’ Harris: ‘We need Trump's cholesterol numbers and he has secretly told John Kelly evil things he's never told anyone else.’” Twitter/X, [10/23/24]

- Right-wing radio host Bo Snerdley asserted that “Kelly is a fired employee. Who apparently bears a grudge. Let's see how many ‘fired’ or former employees of Ms. Harris - and there are many - get quoted in these final two weeks.” Twitter/X, [10/23/24]

- Jesse Kelly Showhost Jesse Kelly claimed that the Harris campaign “has a billion dollars, an army of consultants, months to work on a plan,” but her “October surprise” is a sign that “this campaign ain’t gonna make it.” Kelly claimed that the surprise was “the same ‘Trump is Hitler!’ drivel we’ve been hearing since he came down the escalator in 2015.” Twitter/X, [10/23/24]

- Conspiracy theorist Julie Kelly called Harris “desperate” and said she is repeating “unsubstantiated claims by John Kelly and Trump's alleged desire to hire generals like Hitler had.” Kelly also called Harris’ comments “desperate and disgusting conduct not just by a presidential candidate but a sitting vice president,” adding “This is not how winners behave.” Twitter/X, [10/23/24]

- The Washington Free Beacon’s Chuck Ross asserted that Harris is “currently touting John Kelly, whom she called ‘unethical’ a few years ago.”Twitter/X, [10/23/24]

* Fox host Sean Hannity linked Harris’ comment to past assassination attempts against Trump, seemingly suggesting that Harris is encouraging violence against Trump by echoing Kelly’s comments. Hannity: “Kamala Harris said ‘Donald Trump wants generals like Hitler’ tonight and apparently said earlier, you know, that he’s a fascist. The man now — we had two would-be assassins. … This rhetoric is getting so over the top, and it seems like that’s all they’re doubling down and tripling down on. And I would expect we’re probably gonna have an October surprise, maybe five a day, every day, for the next 13 days.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [10/23/24]

:{ * Former GOP presidential candidate and Fox Nation host Vivek Ramaswamy called on Harris to “step up and apologize” for “stoking this culture of political violence that was shameful.”Fox News, *Hannity*:(style="background-color:#ffff00"):}:, [10/23/24]

* America Reports' John Roberts claimed that Harris’ closing argument for her campaign is improperly focused on Trump. Roberts: “We are seeing Kamala Harris' closing argument for the last 13 days is ‘Trump is a fascist, he embraces Hitler and wants to have his generals.’ She's not saying to young Black men across the country: ‘Here's what I'm going to do for you economically.’” Media Matters, [10/23/24]

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While Fox News pushes false jobs claim, WSJ reports fracking is not even in the top 50 industries in Pennsylvania

10/25/24 mma

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morn joe tons of ads football kamala sex surgery prisoners

10 24

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Anti-abortion hecklers interrupted a Kamala Harris rally. Fox News and MAGA media turned them into culture war heroes — and Trump ran with it.

How Fox News manufactured outrage over anti-abortion Harris rally hecklers to smear Democrats as anti-Christian

Written by Helena Hind

Published 10/23/24 MMA

After Vice President Kamala Harris shut down anti-abortion hecklers at a campaign rally, Fox News pundits saw an opportunity to add a new misleading talking point to former President Donald Trump’s arsenal. Within days, the former president used Fox’s talking points as fodder to smear Democrats as anti-Christian on the campaign trail.

### Kamala Harris told anti-abortion hecklers they were “at the wrong rally” after they interrupted her

The exchange happened during an October 17 campaign rally, while Harris was speaking about reproductive rights. As she criticized Trump’s role in overturning Roe v. Wade, the vice president was interrupted by hecklers in the crowd.

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“Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally,” she retorted. “No, I think you meant to go to the smaller one down the street.”

As the moment went viral on social media, another version of the clip gained traction among high-profile MAGA accounts alleging that Harris was specifically responding to a heckler saying “Jesus is Lord.”

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“Christians are not welcome in Kamala’s Democrat Party,” claimed TPUSA’s Charlie Kirk. “Vote accordingly.”

The talking point inevitably made its way from Fox News’ airwaves to Trump

The hecklers first appeared on the network during the October 20 edition of Fox & Friends Weekend. “This is our first time taking an interview with anybody,” one of them confirmed to co-host Will Cain, before alleging that he was kicked out of the rally for voicing his Christian beliefs.

Co-host Rachel-Campos Duffy solidified Fox’s version of the story with her question: “Luke said something about Jesus, right? ‘Jesus is King, Jesus is Lord,’ and she said, ‘You’re not welcome here.’ I want to know what you felt in that moment.”

The next day, October 21, Fox & Friends co-hosts Lawrence Jones, Ainsley Earhardt, and Brian Kilmeade continued to criticize Harris for supposedly disparaging Christianity. “I was shocked that any politician would put down the number one religion in our country,” Earhardt complained, before re-airing clips of the hecklers’ October 20 interview.

Later that day, host Laura Ingraham said Harris “sent a clear message to Christians: ‘You’re not welcome here.’”

Video

CitationFrom the October 21, 2024, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle

The hecklers themselves also made an appearance in Ingraham’s show, repeating the right-wing media version of the story. A chyron reading “The Left’s anti-Christian rhetoric” briefly aired.

Sean Hannity hosted the hecklers on his radio show on October 22, one of whom alleged Harris was “publicly denouncing the name of the Lord.” The Fox host was happy to agree: “‘Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally because you believe in Jesus?’ I thought Democrats prided themselves in being open-minded.”

By October 22, the story had made its way to the Trump campaign. A video posted to his X account spliced an edited version of the Harris clip with a soundbite from a Trump speech: “While Kamala says that people who believe in Jesus don’t belong to her rallies, in our movement, we love Christians, we welcome believers, and we embrace followers of Jesus.”

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This is just another example of the stubborn Fox-Trump feedback loop, which has persisted well into 2024. As Election Day nears, the pundits will likely continue to manufacture outrage, and misleading stories, and jokes for the former president to repeat on the campaign trail.

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mma

There is no Fox “news side.” Wednesday’s Trump and Harris events prove it.

Written by Matt Gertz

Published 10/17/24

Fox News’ Wednesday programming encapsulated the transformation of the network’s once-vaunted “news side” into an extension of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

In the morning, Fox aired what it had touted as a town hall with Trump featuring an audience of women voters. In reality, the event was functionally a pep rally for the former president, who was guided by Fox anchor Harris Faulkner through questions from a crowd Fox stocked with his supporters. abortion min 58 of 60?]

Vice President Kamala Harris received a starkly different reception that night when she sat down with Fox anchor Bret Baier, at one point catching him using a deceptive clip to downplay Trump’s rants about “the enemy from within.”

Fox’s “news side” has been in steep decline since Trump took over the Republican Party and the network rebranded as his personal propaganda outlet. But even by those standards, the partisan divide it displayed on Wednesday was striking and would be catastrophically embarrassing to Fox’s employees if any of them were still capable of humiliation.

### For Trump, a Fox-branded campaign event

Fox announced last week that it was planning a town hall with Trump that would be taped in Georgia and moderated by Faulkner. The network’s press release stressed that the event would feature an “audience entirely composed of women” and highlighted Faulkner’s journalistic credentials. Politico’s takeaway was that by taking questions from members of “a demographic that has been largely repulsed by his temperament and abortion-rights views,” the former president would be “venturing into more challenging territory.”

In reality, Fox had stocked the audience with Trump’s supporters by inviting local Republican groups, as The Independent’s Eric Garcia reported.

This quickly became apparent when the edited broadcast began airing on the Wednesday edition of Faulkner’s show and Trump entered to a standing ovation from the crowd. The first questioner, who identified herself as “Lisa,” is the president of a local Republican women’s group.

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Over the course of the broadcast, Trump fielded softball questions from people who were clearly voting for him; at least one was wearing branded Trump paraphernalia. He got help along the way from Faulkner, a committed shill for his campaign who has criticized journalists at other outlets for asking tough questions of the former president and avoided pushing back as he spread numerous falsehoods.

Notably, Fox deliberately deceived the public about the audience it hosted for Trump. While Faulkner described the crowd as coming from “every walk of life,” CNN subsequently reported that the network not only stocked the town hall with Trump’s supporters, the version it aired left out two key occurrences that exposed just how in-the-tank for Trump it had been.

A portion of one question “was edited by Fox News to remove her admission that she was voting for Trump,” CNN reported after comparing audio a reporter in the room recorded to the program Fox aired. “During another moment missing from Fox’s broadcast, Trump asked the crowd who they were voting for, leading to a chant of ‘Trump, Trump’ breaking out by the attendees.”

It’s easy to see why Trump might prefer such a supportive environment, even as his campaign reportedly canceled recent interviews with CBS, NBC, and CNBC.

But it is unfathomable that Fox figures would host such an event for Harris — and if they did, Trump would probably threaten that his administration would retaliate against the network.

### For Harris, a deceptive clip soft-pedaling Trump’s authoritarian rants

While Baier has long enjoyed a largely unearned reputation as a credible newsman, he lives in palpable fear of his viewers abandoning his network. He spent the day leading up to his Harris interview telling agitated social media followers that he wasn’t going to give her the questions and the interview wouldn’t be edited to make her look good.

His subsequent performance was what you might expect from someone worried primarily about letting down Fox’s pro-Trump audience. Harris faced a barrage of hostile questions and frequent interruptions when she tried to answer them. Baier devoted the first third of the interview to Trump’s preferred topic of immigration. He spent more time trying to grill Harris on surgeries for incarcerated trans people — a focal point of recent Trump ads — than he did abortion, which did not come up at all.

These tactics made for a combative interview, one that probably would have helped Baier with his audience without hurting his reputation.

But at one point, Baier tried to downplay Trump’s recent fascistic comments about “the enemy from within.” He asked Harris to respond to a clip from Trump’s town hall on the subject — but left out the part where he cited “the Pelosis” as an example of who he was talking about, and added, “These people, they are so sick and they are so evil.” Harris caught him red-handed.

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Baier’s attempted clean-up was blatant enough to draw criticism not only from his competitors at MSNBC and CNN, and from media critics like Poynter’s Tom Jones, but even from former Fox colleagues.

It is unfathomable that Fox personalities would do such a thing in an interview with Trump — and if they did, Trump would probably threaten that his administration would retaliate against the network.

### For Fox’s “news side,” a years-long slide

Fox’s “news side” always functioned as a cog in the right-wing media machine that laundered its talking points into the mainstream press, and its claim to independence was demolished during Trump's presidency. But at this point the network seems to have all but given up on even pretending to employ a credible news apparatus.

The last few years have seen newsroom stalwarts with decades at the network leave and call their former employer a propaganda outlet.

Fox’s decision desk was neutered after the 2020 election, with top executives overruling and then firing its leaders.

The network has shortened its “news” hours and replaced newsroom staffers with GOP partisans.

Reporters who tried to tell viewers the truth about Trump’s election fraud claims were first chastised by their bosses and then took jobs at other outlets.

What remains are people like Baier and Faulkner who are comfortable with Fox — the whole network, “news” and “opinion” side alike — operating as an extension of Trump’s will.

on charlamagne tha god 50K start biz, ackn systemic racism?

Fox News' Jesse Watters: “Kamala wants to win the Black vote with free money and drugs”

10/15/24 mma

Jesse Watters says Kamala Harris' policies are “reparations in disguise”

10/14/24 mma

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trump bail kernen cnbc vs

an 10 24

The right wing freakout is in full force after Fox News announced Vice President Kamala Harris will sit down for an interview with then network’s chief political anchor Bret Baier on Wednesday in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania.

It will be the Democratic presidential nominee’s first official Fox News interview, after entering the race in July, less than three months ago.

“While Trump became the first major presidential nominee to back out of the traditional pre-election ’60 Minutes’ interview, Kamala Harris has agreed to sit down with Fox News for an interview this week,” noted Zeteo News’ Justin Baragona.

“Harris has upped her media appearances recently, having sat down with Stephen Colbert, 60 Minutes‘ Bill Whitaker and Howard Stern, among other personalities,” Deadline reports. “But she’s also been urged by some supportersto make an appearance on Fox News, populated by voices on the right, even though Baier is on the network’s news side. With an average of 2.3 million viewers, Special Report has ranked among the most watched cable news programs.”

Trump recently did pull out of a previously agreed-to interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” and has refused to do any more debates with Harris after losing the first one on ABC News. Before that debate Trump had suggested a condition of him participating in the ABC debate would be Harris had to agree to two others, which she did. Next week she will appear in a CNN town hall, which originally was to be a debate until Trump pulled out.

“As of today, it has been **one month** since Trump’s been interviewed by a mainstream media outlet,” noted Harris campaign spokesperson Ian Sams, “as he has backed out of 60 Minutes and refuses to debate again.”

“Meanwhile Harris is willing to even go on Fox,” he added.

During the 2024 campaign Trump has done virtually no interviews with mainstream media outlets, avoiding The New York Times, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, and MSNBC. He did sit down with NBC News’s “Meet the Press” for Kristen Welker’s first interview as the show’s new moderator last year in September.

The Nation’s John Nichols commented that Trump is “running scared.”

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Trump supporters “swarmed all over Fox’s Bret Baier today like he was a Capitol Police Officer on J6 after he posted on Twitter that he will be interviewing Kamala Harris this Wednesday,” MeidasTouch News reports. “Baier received 2,200 comments on his tweet announcing the interview in just the first hour after he posted it.”

“Most of the MAGA comments to Baier follow a consistent theme – that they lost all faith in Baier after his tough interview embarrassed Trump last year, and that they expect him to go into this interview with guns blazing to win back their favor. They also mentioned some of the previous Harris interview conspiracies – that her earrings were airpods where she was getting the answers, that she was given the questions ahead of time, that Baier and Fox called the 2020 election too early for Biden, etc.,” MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski reported.

Journalist Mike Rothschild, who has written books on right wing conspiracy theories, observed: “This is smart from the VP. She has nothing to lose by appearing on the news arm of Fox News (as opposed to the screeching infotainment arm) and if she breaks through to a fraction of their viewership, it’s worth it. It’s almost like the Harris campaign knows what it’s doing.”

The news Harris will appear on Fox News comes on the heels of one of that outlet’s former top hosts, Geraldo Rivera, denouncing Donald Trump and endorsing the Vice President’s run for President.

===}:

an 10 24

Suggesting that Vice President Kamala Harris “isn’t competent to run a bingo game at the community center,” Trump senior adviser Stephen Millerlaid into a top Harris spokesperson Monday night for suggesting that Donald Trump backed out of a "60 Minutes" sit-down interview because the former president is “avoiding the media.”

The social media feud between Miller and Harris-Walz senior national spokesperson Ian Sams ensued shortly after the airing of the traditional “60 Minutes” candidate interview, which Trump was notably absent from despite originally agreeing to.

“Scott Pelley opens ‘60 Minutes’ outlining in great detail how Donald Trump agreed to sit for an interview, including quoting Steven Cheung phone calls and text messages, before canceling,” Sams wrote on X. “Yikes. Why is Trump avoiding the media? Why won't he answer questions from real outlets?”

“Hey liar, Trump has done dozens of hours long press conferences with adversarial media,” Miller wrote in a reply to Sams. “Kamala has never done one adversarial interview in any setting anywhere and never done one single solitary press conference. Kamala isn’t competent to run a bingo game at the community center.”

Sams left his position as a Biden administration spokesman for oversight and investigations in August to join the Harris-Walz campaign as a top spokesperson, the Washington Post reported. He previously served as national press secretary on Harris' 2020 presidential campaign, according to the publication.

Miller is a longtime Trump adviser and architect of the Trumpadministration's “zero tolerance” family separation policy.

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an 10 24

60 min says not aspire to humble not 50’s

'Out of touch': GOP gov. slammed after claiming she 'never' criticized Harris 'for not having children'

===

enhanced misogyny? racism? escalate?

mma

Trump’s “mentally impaired” attack didn’t happen in a vacuum: Fox and right-wing media repeatedly hurled ableist slur at Harris

Written by Eric Hananoki

Published 10/03/24 mma

*Content warning: This article repeatedly quotes right-wing figures using an ableist slur.

Former President Donald Trump recently and falsely claimed that opponent Vice President Kamala Harris was born “mentally impaired” and is “mentally disabled.” The remarks followed numerous Trump media allies, including Fox’s Greg Gutfeld and podcaster Laura Loomer, attacking Harris with an ableist slur.

Trump has repeatedly claimed during campaign rallies that Harris has a mental disability, including saying of her and the Biden administration’s immigration policy: “If you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country.”

The American Association of People with Disabilities criticized Trump’s remarks. Pro-Trump media figures cheered them.

Pro-Trump podcasters Benny Johnson and Laura Loomer, who has close ties to Trump, responded with laughing emojis. Podcaster Shawn Farash wrote: “Is there anyone funnier than Donald Trump?” Conservative social media personality Gunther Eagleman wrote: “Trump doing what Trump does best, calling it as he sees it. … We are so back!” And podcaster Alec Lace wrote: “Never Forget: The same people who told you for years that Joe Biden was sharp as a tack are now telling you Kamala Harris is smart!”

Trump’s remarks didn’t occur in a vacuum. Since Harris became the Democratic nominee, right-wing media have repeatedly attempted to portray her as mentally disabled, including by referring to her with an ableist slur. Below are numerous examples from the past few months.

Fox News host Greg Gutfeld, who recently hosted Trump, has called Harris a “r--ed version of Mister Rogers.” He also said that Harris “speaks like a r-ed Hallmark card.” (Fox has claimed it is “committed to providing a workplace that treats all employees with dignity and respect and is free from all forms of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation,” including regarding “mental disability.”)

Loomer said on her program of Harris: “Maybe we have a DEI r-- sitting in the White House with Joe Biden as his brain continues to rot away, and that's what happens when you put people in office because they're DEI rxxxxs. Yeah. She can't talk, just like Joe Biden. She doesn't have dementia. She's just rxxxxed.” Loomer also wrote after Harris posted about being briefed on Hurricane Helene: “Kamala Harris is literally R--ed.”

Online troll Brenden Dilley, who has connections with the Trump campaign and other Republicans, has repeatedly used ableist language to attack Harris, including writing: “Kamala Harris is fucking retarded] d,” and, “Tomorrow night, Donald Trump is going to mop the floor with one of the worst DEI hires in American history, Kamala Harris. Everything she has ever ‘earned’ is going to be invalidated after regular America finds out how fucking r--ed she truly is.”

Online streamer David Freiheit (“VivaFrei”), who has hosted Trump running mate and Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), wrote: “Kamala Harris is fucking r--ed. And if you vote for her, so are you.”

Social media misinformer Ian Miles Cheong wrote of Harris: “This woman is r--ed and has a very low IQ. It is a miracle she’s managed to fail upwards as much as anyone could ever fail upwards in the history of failing upwards. No, it’s not misogynistic to say that.”

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random BS tho racist wht greivance

mma

right-wing media falsely and dishonestly claim that Hurricane Helene survivors are only entitled to $750 in aid

According to FEMA, survivors can also qualify for “tens of thousands more dollars” in disaster-related financial assistance

Written by Alicia Sadowski & Isabella Corrao

Published 10/04/24

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, right-wing media falsely claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris and the Biden administration are ignoring millions of Americans impacted by intense flooding. Media personalities and MAGA influencers have falsely and dishonestly claimed that victims are only entitled to $750 in aid, when in reality that is just the start of federal benefits.

FEMA can provide assistance for victims of Hurricane Helene, but chronic underfunding and climate change, not undocumented migrants, threaten future aid availability

In addition to FEMA providing residents of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia with “a one-time $750 payment to help with essential items like food, water, baby formula and other emergency supplies,” victims can also qualify for “disaster-related financial assistance to repair storm-related damage to homes and replace personal property.” After visiting the wreckage in Georgia, Harris reiterated that “FEMA is also providing tens of thousands more dollars for folks to help them be able to deal with home repair, to be able to cover a deductible when and if they have insurance, and also hotel costs.” The White House, [10/2/24, 10/2/24]

- After President Joe Biden signed a stopgap spending bill in September, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said FEMA can properly respond to Helene recovery efforts. FEMA spokesperson Daniel Llargués said that FEMA is in a “good position” to respond to Hurricane Helene relief efforts after the agency received $20.3 billion under the spending bill. Biden has suggested bringing lawmakers back to Washington to provide additional funding for disaster relief, but Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has claimed “there’s no necessity for Congress to come back”. The New York Times, [9/26/24, 10/2/24; Roll Call, 10/3/24; FEMA, 10/3/24]

- Future concerns for FEMA’s funding are attributable to chronic underfunding by Congress and increased costs associated with extreme weather disturbance as a result of climate change, not aid given to undocumented immigrants. Mayorkas warned that FEMA “does not have the funds to make it through the [hurricane] season.” A DHS spokesperson clarified, however, that aid provided to undocumented immigrants through the Shelter and Services Program is “a completely separate, appropriated grant program that was authorized and funded by Congress and is not associated in any way with FEMA's disaster-related authorities or funding streams." The Associated Press, [10/3/24; Axios, 7/14/23; Bipartisan Policy Center, 7/23/24; Newsweek, 10/3/24]

### Fox News personalities grossly misled viewers about federal aid that Helene survivors are entitled to

Fox’s misleading coverage of $750 payment was “one of the more dishonest omissions ever seen on Fox News – which is saying something.” Mediaite columnist Michael Luciano wrote of the misleading attack by Fox hosts Sean Hannity, Jesse Watters, and Laura Ingraham. Watters and Ingraham aired misleading clips from a speech by VP Kamala Harris suggesting that $750 was the only benefit survivors were entitled to, while Harris continued explaining that it was just the start of substantial federal aid. Hannity described the aid efforts in similarly dishonest terms:

To wit, on Thursday, Laura Ingraham and Jesse Watters aired a clip of Vice President Kamala Harris speaking in hurricane-ravaged Georgia the previous day. As Harris spoke on Ingraham’s show, the Fox News chyron read, “Kamala: Here’s $750 that’ll do the trick.”

…

As X/Twitter super-poster Acyn Torbai noted in the video below, Fox News actually carried Harris’s speech live the previous day. The vice president explained that the $750 is just the beginning of the assistance available to impacted residents. Mediaite, [10/3/24]

- After cutting off the video of Harris in Georgia before her promise of “tens of thousands more dollars” in aid, Fox host Laura Ingraham claimed that all victims are “getting right now is a $750 check … from the federal government — the government you’ve been sending taxes to your entire life.” She asked, “Did Joe and Kamala care more about the millions of illegals coming across our border than the people struggling in the storm-ravaged Southeast?” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [10/3/24]

- Fox host Jesse Watters lamented that Vice President Harris is “tossing a few hundred bucks at people who lost everything.” He continued, “$750. Democrats sent checks for thousands of dollars during COVID. Thousands. None of those people had their homes swept away by floodwaters.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [10/2/24]

- Watters told Fox News guest and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy that “Kamala Harris throwing $750 at people who lost everything — their homes, their family, their cats, their dogs, everything” is “insulting.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [10/2/24]

- Watters scoffed: “$750 per person in America after you lost your entire home, all of your belongings, and you have no food, power, or water.” He complained, “When American citizens — the ones who were born here and pay taxes — deserve help, Biden and Harris are saying, ‘Ah, sorry, we give it all away to the people who broke into the country.’” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [10/3/24]

- Sean Hannity blamed FEMA’s lack of funds on its provision of “free food, housing, health care, education, sex-change surgeries, debit cards, four-star hotels” to undocumented immigrants while Helene victims get “a lousy … $750.” “They've been completely abandoned by your border czar, who prioritized her unvetted illegal immigrants over the American people.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [10/3/24]

- On his radio show, Hannity claimed that Hurricane Helene victims are receiving “a mere $750 one-time payment from FEMA because they gave all of it to Harris-Biden unvetted illegal immigrants.” He continued, “What about the people whose entire lives have been upended here? And that’s all you’re going to offer them? Is a mere 750 bucks a week after the event happened?” Premiere Radio Networks, *The Sean Hannity Show*, [10/3/24]

- Fox anchor John Roberts complained that the $750 payment would not be effective. He said, “If they really wanted to help people out, they’d be going up and down the street with hundred dollar bills and handing them out to folks that need to buy things immediately, and, as well, doing everything that they can to get supplies to them.” Fox News, *America Reports*, [10/3/24]

### MAGA media figures inaccurately blamed migrants for taking FEMA funds and lied about Helene victims only receiving a one-time $750 payment

* Anti-Muslim activist Brigitte Gabriel claimed that victims of Hurricane Helene would get “$750” but that a “criminal thug from South America” would get “a 4-star hotel with credit cards.” She posted, “If you lost your entire house during Hurricane Helene, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will give you $750. If you are a criminal thug from South America and cross the border illegally through Mexico, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will put you up in a 4-star hotel with credit cards.” Twitter/X, [10/3/24]

- The Federalist’s Sean Davis posted that victims are not receiving aid because FEMA is “refusing to provide because you spent all the money on illegals.” Twitter/X, [10/3/24]

- Former Trump adviser and frequent Fox guest Stephen Miller’s America First Legal posted that “FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season” but “spent over $1 BILLION in taxpayer dollars on providing housing and services to illegal aliens.” The group also inaccurately wrote that, “Kamala announces victims of Hurricane Helene will get only $750.” Twitter/X, [10/3/24]

- Townhall’s Dustin Grage repeated, “FEMA is out of cash because of illegals.”Twitter/X, [10/3/24]

- Fox News contributor Sara Carter posted, “Yes, Harris and Biden did - they stole FEMA money from Americans and then abandoned them.” She called it “tragic and disgusting.” Twitter/X, [10/3/24]

- Right-wing conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich claimed Mayorkas “laundered all of the money to open borders NGO’s.” Twitter/X, [10/3/24]

===

September 18, 2024 rww

Ben Zeisloft says that Amber Nicole Thurman, a Georgia woman who died after failing to receive timely medical treatment for complications arising from taking abortion pills, is “burning in Hell”: “Praise God for his glorious justice. Praise God for causing the wicked to stumble and fall into the very nets that they set for the innocent.”

* Scott Lively claims that “the term ‘homophobia’ and its derivatives are no less offensive and demeaning to defenders of the natural family and traditional sexual morality than the term ‘faggot’ is to men afflicted with SSADness [same-sex attraction disorder]”: “A slur is a slur, and none of them has a legitimate place in civil discourse.”

Virulently misogynistic far-right activist Jon Miller defends domestic violence, saying that while “a woman every once in awhile needs a backhand” and that “errant wives” need to be “physically chastised,” what Diddy did went too far.

Nick Fuentes’ white supremacy is becoming increasingly open and aggressive, with him telling Jews and minorities that they “need to recognize your place” because “this is a white country.”

Finally, Lance Wallnau alleges that Vice President Kamala Harris demonstrated “15 microaggression expressions” during the presidential debate, akin to those displayed by Hitler: “Kamala is a dangerous woman.”

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===

trump campaign tries to tar harris and walz

an 9 24

Retired Minneapolis police officer Scott Creighton was among the witnesses for the defense when Derek Chauvin was on trial following the June 2020 murder of George Floyd.

Four years after Floyd's death, Creighton is being featured in an ad from Preserve America PAC — a pro-Donald Trump group. Creighton vigorously attacks 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in the ad, which the Washington Post's Glenn Kessler fact-checks in his September 16 column.

In the ad, Creighton says of Harris, "Four years ago, in this alley, rioters threw a brick at my face and knocked out my teeth. Why? Because I was a police officer. And what did Kamala Harris do? While America's cities were burning, Kamala was defending peaceful protests. She raised millions to help bail rioters out of jail. And supported defunding our police, making us all less safe. Kamala Harris is dangerous."

But according to Kessler, Creighton "ignores that Harris condemned the riots, even as she said people had a right to peacefully protest."

Creighton, Kessler emphasizes, glosses over the fact that Harris was quite forceful in her condemnation of violent rioters in August 2020.

Former prosecutor Harris, then a U.S. senator, said, "It's no wonder people are taking to the streets, and I support them. We must always defend peaceful protest and peaceful protesters. We should not confuse them with those looting and committing acts of violence."

When riots took place in Portland, Oregon, Kessler notes, Harris tweeted, "I join @JoeBiden in condemning this violence. This cannot — and must not — be who we are. Americans deserve a president who will heal our country and bring people together — not fan the flames of hate and division."

READ MORE:**Trump's hate is no joke**

Creighton's claim that Harris "raised millions to help bail rioters out of jail," according to Kessler, "cannot be verified."

Harris, Kessler points out, supported a group called the Minneapolis Freedom Fund, which raised bail money for nonviolent Floyd protesters.

*Glenn Kessler's full Washington Post column is available at this link (subscription required).

tenet media 10 million putin

Earlier this summer, Pool attacked Kamala Harris by calling her a “Communazi Despot come to put conservatives in concentration camps.” The attack was so over the top that it even drew a reply from white nationalist Richard Spencer, who wondered, “A bit much?”

===

alberto gonzales

Ex-Bush AG slams Trump’s 'serious threat to the rule of law' in bombshell Harris endorsement an 9 24

mma 9 24

Right-wing media spread falsehoods about Minnesota’s abortion law after Trump’s poor debate performance

Special ProgramsAbortion Rights & Reproductive Health

Written by John Knefel

Research contributions from Media Matters Staff

Published 09/11/24

Right-wing media figures responded to former President Donald Trump’s poor debate performance on Tuesday night by spreading falsehoods about Minnesota’s abortion law.

During the debate, Trump made false and misleading assertions about legislation enacted by Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. “But her vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine,” Trump said. “He also says execution after birth, it's execution, no longer abortion, because the baby is born, is okay.”

As ABC News moderator Linsey Davis noted after Trump’s comments, “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born.”

Trump’s comments about “abortion in the ninth month” are also misleading. In 2023, Walz signed the Protect Reproductive Options Act, or PRO Act, into law, further codifying the right to an abortion in Minnesota. As KARE11 reported this April, Minnesota healthcare providers performed only one third-trimester abortion in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available. The same was true in 2019 and 2020. In 2021, a single Minnesota resident was listed as having received a third-trimester abortion, but it was performed out of state. Generally, only about one percent of abortions nationwide occur after 21 weeks.

Despite clear evidence to the contrary, right-wing figures took Trump’s comments and ran with them.

Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade falsely claimed that under Walz, Minnesota performed five “abortions” after a child had been born — in other words, had committed the crime of infanticide. “It soon turned to the fact-checking on abortion, when it come to there’s no abortion after the ninth month, when, in fact, under Gov. Tim Walz, it happened at least five times in Minnesota,” Kilmeade said. “When a moderator … fact-checks you and the moderator is wrong, that's tough on a candidate.”

Video

CitationFrom the September 11, 2024, edition of Fox News' Fox and Friends

It’s not entirely clear what Kilmeade is referring to, but he is completely wrong on Minnesota’s abortion laws. In 2021, Minnesota recorded five instances of a “born-alive infant” following an abortion procedure; two were not viable, two were provided “comfort care,” and in the final instance, “fetal anomalies were reported resulting in death shortly after delivery.” In no case was a so-called post-birth abortion performed.

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk also mischaracterized the 2023 Minnesota legislation, writing on X (formerly Twitter), “The left believes in legal infanticide.”

CitationFrom Charlie Kirk's X/Twitter account

Contrary to Kirk’s claims, the 2023 law clearly states: “An infant who is born alive shall be fully recognized as a human person, and accorded immediate protection under the law.”

As 10News reported, citing a doctor who supports abortion rights, the law was designed to make “sure doctors aren't forced to prolong the suffering of an infant unable to live on its own.” An editorial in the Star Tribune further explained how the law’s changes supported families by not forcing “an infant with severe anomalies undergo extraordinary and futile medical care.”

Fox News co-host Kayleigh McEnany echoed Kirk’s mischaracterization of the Minnesota law. “Where was the question about Tim Walz allowing babies born alive after abortion to die in Minnesota and then removing reporting requirements?” McEnany wrote on X.

CitationFrom Kayleigh McEnany's account on X/Twitter

The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles similarly wrote, “Kamala’s own running mate repealed the legal requirement that physicians attempt to ‘preserve the life and health of the born alive infant.’”

CitationFrom Michael Knowles' account on X/Twitter

Knowles’ colleague at The Daily Wire, Mary Margaret Olohan, did as well.

CitationFrom Mary Margaret Olohan's account on X/Twitter

Right-wing radio host Erick Erickson made a similar claim, though did not specify that he was talking about Minnesota.

CitationFrom Erick Erickson's account on X/Twitter

This line of attack against Walz isn’t new. In August, Fox’s McEnany made similar misleading claims, telling her viewers that “his abortion policy allows abortion until birth.”

===

an 9 24

During her Tuesday night, September 10 presidential debate with Donald Trump at Philadelphia's National Constitution Center, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris vigorously attacked the GOP nominee on everything from abortion to foreign policy to tariffs and tax policy. Harris also slammed Trump's position on healthcare, arguing that he would abolish the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (also known as Obamacare) without having a replacement in mind.

One of Trump's Obamacare-related comments, New Republic editor Michael Tomasky argues in an article published the following day, may be the thing that did the most to sink his debate performance.

Trump said of a possible Obamacare replacement, "I have concepts of a plan" — a line Tomasky slams as especially embarrassing.

"While 'I have concepts of a plan' was the worst and dumbest sentence he uttered," Tomasky argues, "a close second would have to be, 'Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.' The only thing he left out of that sentence is that she plans to steer the catering contract to Comet Ping Pong.

"I have concepts of a plan," according to Tomasky, "is going to go down in presidential debate lore as one of the most pathetic lines in debate history."

"Kamala Harris was really good Tuesday night — really, really good," Tomasky writes. "She accomplished everything she needed to accomplish. She sliced and diced him. She dangled bait, and he leapt at the hook. But as good as she was, Trump was more bad than Harris was good."

Tomasky also argues that if Trump opts to "complain about the moderators" of the debate, that will only "reinforce everything that was unappealing, worn out, and out of touch about him at the debate."

READ MORE:[Conservative slams right-wing media for amplifying 'stupid' pet lies as 'Trump picks it up' at debate

"Of course, there's a chance Trump will turn it around," the New Republic editor writes. "But we may have just witnessed the beginning of a downward spiral that's going to get weirder and worse over the next 55 days. Pass the popcorn."

*Michael Tomasky's full article for The New Republic is available at this link.

===

an 9 24

Peter Wehner, who has said that he left the Republican Party "because of Donald Trump," explained in a Wednesday column published by The Atlantic, how Kamala Harris completed her mission of humiliating the ex-president during the candidates' first debate Tuesday night.

Emphasizing that he's "never seen a candidate execute a debate strategy as well as Harris did," in his 48 years of watching presidential debates, the former GOPer submitted that by forcing "Trump to go on the defensive," the vice president successfully "broke her opponent."

"What Harris appeared to understand, better than anyone else who has debated Trump, is that the key to defeating him is to trigger him psychologically," Wehner wrote.

READ MORE:[Winning these 2 states would make Harris or Trump 'overwhelming favorites' to win election

"She did it by repeatedly calling him 'weak,' mocking him, acting bemused by him, and literally laughing at him," he added.

Although "by his standards," Wehner noted, Trump started the debate "fairly controlled and focused," the dynamic between the candidates shifted when the vice president "taunted Trump about his rallies," calling them exhausting and boring.

After the pair went back and forth for nearly two hours on the Philadelphia stage, Trump closed by calling the United States"a failing nation," before leaving "the stage, into the shadows, a broken man atop a broken campaign," Wehner emphasized.

Wehner wrote:

Kamala Harris cracked the code. She took Trump apart without losing her composure. She worked to insulate herself against charges that she’s a left-wing radical, even reminding voters that she’s a gun owner. Harris succeeded in presenting herself, a sitting vice president in an unpopular administration, as the change agent. She appealed to unity, inviting Americans to 'turn the page' on a man who belittles the country and seeks to keep it in a constant state of agitation and chaos. And she returned time and again to the argument that Trump cares only for himself, while during her career, she’s only had one client: the people.

*Wehner's full column is available here (subscription required).

===

After Trump's flailing performance, some MAGA figures falsely claim Harris was wearing an earpiece at the debate

The perennial claim goes back nearly two decades, as right-wing media figures have routinely claimed that candidates were wearing secret earpieces during debates

Written by Jack Winstanley & Kayla Gogarty

Research contributions from Payton Armstrong, Olivia Little & Noah Dowe

Published 09/11/24 mma

pix

CitationInfowars

Right-wing and far-right media figures are circulating the false claim that Vice President Kamala Harris was wearing a secret earpiece during the debate, implying that she was being fed responses.

The claim — which right-wing figures have lobbed at presidential candidates for decades — gained traction across social media, including on X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok, where videos asserting that Harris was wearing a secret device earned at least 1.5 million views.

Trump ally Laura Loomer, who has previously used a slur and racist, sexist language to deride Harris, claimed in a post on X that Harris made an “interesting choice of earrings” for the debate and showed an image of a person wearing a Nova H1 audio earring device.

According to Icebach Sound Solutions, the manufacturer of the Nova H1, it is “wireless earphones embedded in a pair of pearl earrings.” However, Newsweek reported that the Nova H1 does not appear to be available for commercial sale and that backers of the Nova H1’s Kickstarter campaign have been asking for updates on their unreceived earrings for over a year. Newsweek also noted that social media users said Harris’ earrings looked like a pair from Tiffany & Co.

Nevertheless, other right-wing media figures and conspiracy theorists jumped on the claim that Harris was supposedly wearing the wireless earphones.

Naomi Wolf, who has repeatedly pushed COVID-19 conspiracy theories, suggested in a social media post that Nova be required to release sales records.

Infowars host Alex Jones suggested that Harris was wearing Nova earrings in a social media post before claiming that “this is dead on the same earring” and “Kamala clearly was wearing this system.”

Video

CitationFrom the September 10, 2024, edition of Infowars' The Alex Jones Show

Several other far-right figures pushed the claim on social media, with some alleging that Harris was “using assistance” during the debate. At least one post had a “community note” attached to it, stating that Harris was wearing earrings produced by Tiffany & Co., not the Nova H1’s.

Other right-wing media figures claimed that Harris was given the questions ahead of time in their flailing attempts to explain how she outperformed Trump on the debate stage.

Media Matters has also identified numerous TikTok videos — with over 1.5 million combined views — that question whether Harris had an “ear piece in” and share images of the Nova earrings.

pix/vid]

One video, which has over 917,000 views, shows an image of Harris’ ear next to an image of what it implies are the Nova H1 earrings, plays audio of former President Barack Obama discussing the importance of the presidency, and overlays text asking, “Kamala wearing Nova H1 earring headphones?”

Video

CitationFrom a September 11, 2024, video uploaded to TikTok

Another video, which has over 525,000 views, shows Harris at the debate wearing earrings, plays audio saying “welcome to the shit show,” and overlays text that says, “Everyone go look up Nova H1 audio earring on Google before they delete the site!!!!”

Right-wing media figures have claimed for over two decades that presidential candidates have worn secret earpieces during debates. While Harris is the most recent target of such claims, similar accusations were leveled at Al Gore in 2000, George W. Bush in 2004, Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Joe Biden after a 2020 debate.

===

an raw 9 24

Semafor is reporting that a highly mysterious right-wing group has been pushing a sexual smear campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris.

According to the report, the group is so secretive that it held Zoom calls over the summer where participants did not identify themselves and their computers' cameras were turned off to mask their true identities.

The content of the call was no mystery, however.

"The influencers’ marching orders were clear: make a series of lurid sexual jibes aimed at Harris, the least crude of which was comparing her to Haliey Welch, the 'Hawk Tuah girl' who became a viral sensation over a video of her discussing oral sex," the publication reports.

Nonetheless, Semafor did manage to identify one participant in the call: Disgraced former Rep. George Santos (R-NY), who actually believed that the call's organizers were going too far in pushing a smear campaign accusing Harris of using sexual favors to advance her career.

ALSO READ:**'Serious predicament': Trump camp insiders fear he'll blow debate — and then the election**

"At that point, a recognizable voice on the anonymous call spoke up to object: Santos, the former Long Island congressman who now faces sentencing in federal court and has remade himself as a social media figure, announced that he disapproved of the messaging and left the call," Semafor writes.

After taking part in the call, Santos posted a tweet that disparaged the call's strategy and lamented, "Please God, make it stop."

Semafor also notes that the funding behind the call remains a mystery, as "organizers told participants that the money was connected to a wealthy American, who they named — but a political operation that figure is connected to heatedly denied any connection to the influencer operation, and there’s no evidence to link them."

===

mma

September 4, 2024, edition of Newsmax's Prime News

MICHAEL GRIMM (HOST): So, listen, Vince, first of all, her parents are PhD parents, OK? And she grew up in a nice neighborhood in Canada. She is not at the forefront of social justice in the United States. What is going on here?

VINCE EVERETT ELLISON (GUEST): Yeah, I didn't know they had civil rights marches down in -- up in Canada. And, you know, Kamala lying. Man, look, the way you know Kamala Harris is lying is that her lips are moving. I mean, she was in San Francisco. She was Willie Brown's side piece. Willie Brown was married. She used him to get a position inside of San Francisco. And then she lied about being Black in order to try to win the Democratic Party nomination. And then when Joe Biden had 100 Black men say that they were going to destroy his campaign unless they chose a Black woman to be his vice president, Kamala lied about being Black to get a Black woman's position.

Now, I don't believe in affirmative action, I don't believe in DEI, but the Black men and the Black people in the Democratic Party are supposed to believe in it. So, Kamala Harris, a Caucasian woman, took a slot for a Black woman. It's like that movie Soul Man -- you remember back in the '80s when the guy wanted to get into Harvard and he took the melanin tablets to get the slot?

GRIMM: Yeah.

ELLISON: And she did that. She actually did it and became vice president based on a lie. And now she's trying to become president based on another lie. This is why she cannot have a legitimate interview with you. She knows you're going to ask that question. She knows that you're going to ask her, when did you know Joe Biden was crazy and why didn't you tell the American people about it? She knows you're going to ask her: OK, OK. Kamala you are the border czar. How did 15 million illegals get over here? She knows you're going to ask her, Kamala, do you believe in abortion until the ninth month? And do you believe that we should have passed the Born Alive Bill, which means you can abort babies after they're born? You know, she -- you're going to ask her those questions. That's why she won't sit down with you.

GRIMM: No, she's not going to sit down with me.

ELLISON: So she's going to step back, she's going to try to run out the clock. She's going to lie, lie, lie, lie, lie. But the American people are too smart. We're going to find her out and we're going to run out of town.

===

see fracking on fox 7

===

Liz Cheney endorses Kamala Harris citing 'danger that Trump poses'

---

mma

Right-wing media claimed a downward jobs revision indicated recession. A new GDP revision shows the economy actually grew more than expected.

08/30/24

---

// fox BS

Watch an economist disrupt a misleading CNBC segment on Kamala Harris' policy against price gouging

After CNBC anchor Joe Kernen and Project 2025 contributor Veronique De Rugy repeatedly mislabeled the Harris plan as “price controls,” economist Justin Wolfers set them straight

Written by Craig Harrington

Published 08/28/24 mma

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris' proposal to combat price gouging continues to be the subject of misleading accusations from ideological opponents in mainstream and right-wing media. The latest flare-up came from CNBC’s flagship morning news program, which repeatedly and falsely labeled the Harris proposal as a form of “price controls.”

One problem with that narrative, as University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers noted, is “that’s actually not what Vice President Harris has suggested we do.”

On the August 28 edition of CNBC’s Squawk Box, MAGA co-anchor Joe Kernen introduced the segment by proclaiming that “VP Harris had a choice between telling Americans that they pay higher prices because of the inflation her administration helped create … or she could blame corporations, she chose the latter.”

Conservative columnist and economist Veronique De Rugy responded to Kernen’s softball setup by acknowledging that Harris' proposal was politically popular before dismissively comparing it to the sky-high tariff proposals being floated by convicted former President Donald Trump, which economists across the political spectrum (including De Rugy herself) widely suggest will result in increased consumer prices that may super charge inflation going forward. De Rugy continually labeled the Harris proposal as a form of “price control,” a misleading description she has recently reiterated in columns published by National Review. (De Rugy is often at odds with much of Trump's economic agenda, but she did co-author a chapter of the pro-Trump manifesto Project 2025, where she called for abolishing the Export–Import Bank of the United States.)

After almost three minutes denigrating the Harris proposal, the panel finally pivoted to commentary from Justin Wolfers, who noted an important aspect overlooked by Kernen and De Rugy: Kamala Harris did not propose price controls.

According to Wolfers, “Generally speaking, when markets are functioning well, price controls are a bad idea even though they are often a popular idea.” Quoting Harris, he added that the vice president’s proposal is focused on “opportunistic companies that exploit crises and break the rules” before concluding that “she's not talking about price controls, not once has she used that word.” Wolfers then reiterated that “economists as a tribe, we’re very upset whenever we think there’s price controls happening. We’ve got to look at the policy — that’s actually not what Vice President Harris has suggested we do.”

Faced with this simple fact, Kernen derailed the conversation by complaining that an initiative to fight price gouging ought not to have been among Harris’ first policy proposals while misleadingly boasting that “wages are still down from when her administration came into office.” (Real wages are higher now than they were pre-pandemic, but lower than they were in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic’s massive disruptions of the labor market and the government’s infusion of stimulus relief.)

Kernen falsely suggested that Harris was blaming price gouging for the systemic inflation witnessed in the United States over the past four years. Harris did not blame price gouging for inflation, centering blame for that phenomenon on disruptions caused by the global pandemic. (Inflation was also a truly global phenomenon, not one centered in the United States, and the U.S. currently enjoys one of the lowest inflation rates among developed countries.)

Wolfers later responded to Kernen’s outburst by recentering the conversation on the actual policies being forwarded by Harris, which he reiterated are not price controls, and contrasting them with the utter vapidity of Trump’s proposals to tackle higher costs of living.

CNBC is not alone among mainstream news outlets blasting the Harris campaign over nonexistent price controls, and much of the argument in this segment echoed misleading reporting and commentary published in The Washington Post last week, which was actually cited briefly at the end of the segment and has already become fodder for the right-wing media’s campaign to smear Harris.

Watch the full segment below:

---

straight news

after debunk?

Fox anchor Bill Hemmer falsely stated that Kamala Harris said she met with Vladimir Putin

08/23/24 mma

===

---

:{August 23, 2024 rww

Trump-loving right-wing activist Jim Garlow watched the DNC and he’s “never ever seen so much deceit, so many blatant, intentional lies. Frankly, it saddens me. I really care for these people. But, SO much delusion.”

Mario Murillo also watched the convention and says that Kamala Harris “must be exposed”: “That is the solemn duty of every decent person. Four more years of this? Truly, my friends, that will be the end of us. Do not condemn your children to this nameless horror!”

Jason Rapert warns that “America will not long survive or prosper if Kamala ‘Commie’ Harris is allowed to become president”: “Every God fearing American must vote for Donald Trump to stop this leftist march into the pits of hell.”

Todd Coconato declares that “they’re trying to put Jezebel in the White House”: “This is a Jezebel spirit, a demonic woman, she’s given herself over to a demonic agenda.”

Lance Wallnau thinks that that former President Donald Trump will do very well with minority voters because they don’t want to be governed by “whining, lecturing female liberals.”

Finally, Glenn Beck asserts that preventing a Kamala Harris presidency represents the “last chance” for America’s hope of survival, which is kind of confusing since that’s literally the same warning he issued in 2012 about a Barack Obama presidency.

---

===

an 8 24

Harris could get 'the highest level of evangelical support since Carter' — here’s how: pastor

===

an 8 24

A prominent Republican group is citing one of the most reviled Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decisions in American history to justify its case that Vice President Kamala Harris should be deemed ineligible to run under the U.S. Constitution.

In an official resolution, the National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA) – a 90 year-old GOP-aligned organization that counted former President Ronald Reagan among its membership — took the position that Harris should not be allowed to hold the office of president, citing several "precedent-setting U.S. Supreme Court cases." Among the six cases the NFRA cited was the *Dred Scott v. Sandford* decision of 1857, which is regarded as one of the worst SCOTUS decisions of all time, if not the worst ever.

"Several states, candidates, and major political parties have ignored this fundamental Presidential qualification, including candidates Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and Kamala Harris whose parents were not American citizens at the time of their birth," the NFRA's resolution read.

The resolution — which attorney Andrew Fleischman posted to the social media platform Bluesky — cited Article II, Section 1, Paragraph 5 of the Constitution, which pertains to only natural-born U.S. citizens being eligible to serve as president. The NFRA argued that the phrase "natural born citizen" is defined as "a person born on American soil of parents who are both citizens of the United States at the time of the child's birth."

However, as numerous Bluesky users observed, applying the NFRA's interpretation of that clause would have made multiple U.S. presidents ineligible to hold office, including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, among others. Dallas-based attorney Santiago Reich pointed out that because those presidents' parents were born on land classified as British colonies at the time, they would not meet the standard the NFRA set to define natural-born citizenship.

One of the other SCOTUS decisions the NFRA cited in its resolution was the 1939 *Perkins v. Elg* case, which states: "A child born here of alien parentage becomes a citizen of the United States." Reich called the NFRA "pretty f—ing bold" to cite a decision that undermines their core argument.

Other Bluesky users responding to Fleischman's post further argued that the mere existence of the 13th Amendment (the abolition of slavery), the 14th Amendment (equal protection for formerly enslaved Americans) and the 19th Amendment (universal women's suffrage) make the cases the NFRA cited in its resolution invalid.

"All of these cases except Perkins v. Elg have been abrogated or are completely unrelated," one user wrote. "Dredd[sic] Scott was overturned entirely by the 14th and its text cannot be meaningfully cited for any reason whatsof—ingever."

The Dred Scott case concerned a slave from Missouri who then lived in the free states of Illinois — which sided with the Union in the Civil War — and Wisconsin (which was initially a part of the Louisiana Territory that did not have slavery due to the 1820 Missouri Compromise). When Dred Scott sued for his freedom, the Supreme Court denied his petition stating that he lacked the standing to sue in federal court.

In the decision, Chief Justice Roger Taney asserted that Article III of the U.S. Constitution made it impossible for the descendants of slaves to have the rights of citizenship. The Supreme Court's own website has since referred to Dred Scott v. Sandford as "a legal and practical mistake."

READ MORE:['Recklessness' of SCOTUS conservatives may result in 'collapse' of Court: ex-prosecutor

8 24 jdv remorse, kh surge dnc hit so desperate to ctr pgm

fox moves on to Comer’s Walz-China smears as his Biden impeachment inquiry collapses

Written by Matt Gertz

Published 08/20/24

Fox News hasn’t learned any lessons from the collapse of its long-sought impeachment probe of President Joe Biden. The network’s biggest stars remain eager to peddle the GOP’s politically motivated investigations of Democrats in hopes of returning Donald Trump to the White House.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) announced on Friday that his committee had opened an investigation into Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s “longstanding connections to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) entities and officials” and was seeking information from the FBI about the governor’s “problematic engagement” with China. While the connections are purportedly “longstanding,” Comer’s interest in them manifested just days after Vice President Kamala Harris named Walz as her running mate.

Comer pitched his new probe on Monday night to Fox’s Jesse Watters, who nodded along as the chairman claimed Walz “really has embraced China's view of the world, the Chinese ideology, which is communism.” Comer also cited Walz’s trips to China as an educator to claim that “it’s very possible” China had been “grooming” the Minnesota governor “to try to have a foothold in our government.”

“It says a lot about Kamala Harris that she picked this guy to be her No. 2,” concluded Watters, who is apparently incapable of subtext.

“Yes,” replied Comer, not pretending that his work is nonpartisan.

Video

CitationFrom the August 19, 2024, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime.

This is absurd. Walz is obviously not a communist; he’s a mainstream Democrat who regularly touts his work helping small business owners.

IFrame Content

Nor is Walz some sort of Manchurian candidate. Beginning in 1989, he frequently visited China as an educator in the 1990s and 2000s — first teaching in the country and later shepherding American students for visits — and has expressed admiration for its people. But as a member of Congress, Walz proved an “outspoken critic of the Chinese government,” The New York Times reported, noting his “sharp critiques of China’s human rights record” and meetings with dissidents from Tibet and Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, Trump’s companies received millions of dollars from Chinese government entities while he was in the White House, and the former president regularly praises Chinese president Xi Jinping and vouched for his efforts to contain COVID-19 as the virus spread worldwide — all without triggering concern from Comer or Fox’s hosts.

:{:{Comer’s McCarthyian turn on Fox came just hours after the chairman concluded his Biden impeachment inquiry with a whimper. House Republicans launched that investigation in response to pressure from Fox, which showered Comer with attention over his hapless probes into the business dealings of Biden’s son Hunter.}:

But the impeachment inquiry all but collapsed after the Justice Department indicted a key “informant” who had claimed the president had taken a hefty bribe for allegedly making up the story. The probe’s final report, released Monday morning, reveals “almost nothing … that wasn’t known or understood before the formal investigation began,” The Washington Post’s Philip Bump reported.}:

But Fox stars like Watters are happy to be used as a propaganda tool by the GOP, and so he’s seamlessly moved on to Comer’s next bit of nonsense.

“Please keep us posted on these developments, this is an important investigation,” Watters told Comer at the end of their interview. The House Republican will surely oblige him.

### Sean Hannity’s response to Trump’s Chinese bribes shows staggering contempt for his audience

:{:{01/05/24}:

### Fox News' failed attempt to use Hunter Biden to gin up an impeachment of his father, by the numbers

:{:{04/25/24}:

### Fox News helps James Comer keep on trucking with Biden impeachment farce

12/05/23

---

an 8 24

also warnock DNC

In an effort to fire up far-right white evangelical voters and Christian nationalists, former President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked Democrats as anti-religion — often using the word "godless." And Caroline Sunshine, deputy communications director for Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, commented, "I think the left is godless" during an appearance on Fox News in July.

But in fact, President Joe Biden and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) have had a lot to say about their Catholicism. Former President Barack Obama isn't shy about discussing his Mainline Protestant background, and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia) is an ordained Protestant minister.

In an article published on August 20, Religion News' Jack Jenkins examines the role that religion is playing in the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Speakers at the convention, Jenkins notes, haven't been shy about referencing "religion, scripture and faith."

"The faith-fueled messaging may have surprised some conservatives," Jenkins observes, "but it's hardly news to anyone who kept a close eye on liberals over the past decade or so. The Democratic Party, although home to a growing and sizable subset of religiously unaffiliated voters, remains majority religious and majority Christian, according to the Public Religion Research Institute."

Jenkins adds, "More to the point: Although people of faith have long been at home among its ranks, religious rhetoric at Democratic Party conventions has garnered more headlines in recent years, with the 2016 gathering featuring a primetime address from a prominent pastor and the 2020 event including an entire section dedicated to faith."

On the second night of the 2024 DNC, presidential nominee Kamala Harris' husband Doug Emhoff discussed their interfaith marriage. Emhoff describes himself as "proudly Jewish," while Harris is a Baptist.

Emhoff told the crowd, "Kamala has connected me more deeply to my faith, even though it's not the same as hers. She comes to synagogue with me for High Holidays, and I go to church with her for Easter. I get to enjoy her mom's chile relleno recipe every Christmas, and she makes a mean brisket for Passover. It brings me right back to my grandmother's apartment in Brooklyn — you know, the one with the plastic-covered couches."

Jenkins notes that religion has been "easy to find on the DNC's main stage."

"Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, a member of the AME tradition, referenced 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 in his speech, noting, 'We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair,'" Jenkins observes. "Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who attends a Disciples of Christ church, spoke of the golden rule and the parable of the good Samaritan while discussing the need for abortion access."

---

record fundraising after biden announcement 25 min to endorse

many vols

===

MTA

H.J.R. 54, the We the People Amendment.

One notable candidate who previously took our Pledge is current Vice President Kamala Harris, who signed as a candidate for U.S. Senator from California in 2016.

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rww 824

Liberty Counsel warns that “the LGBTQ lobby” seeks “to ram the LGBTQ agenda down every throat, from Olympic viewers to quiet Christian women seeking to live out their faith. The LGBTQ agenda seeks nothing less than to eliminate all religious freedom rights that might make them feel bad about their choices. And they have Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as their new mouthpieces.”

---

Charlie Kirk: “Kamala Harris is to blame, partially, for Vladimir Putin deciding to invade Ukraine”

08/13/24 mma

---

ymail judd no pix twt many

How Trump's infatuation with a racist conspiracy theorist is impacting the campaign

Judd Legum and Noel Sims

Aug 14

Laura Loomer is a far-right internet personality and former Republican congressional candidate. She has said the United States should be a "white Judeo-Christian ethnostate," called for the creation of a ride-sharing app like Uber that bans "Islamic immigrant driver[s]," collaborated with Alex Jones to suggest mass shootings were staged by the government, celebrated the deaths of 2,000 refugees in the Mediterranean, and claimed January 6 should be a national holiday to "celebrate the bravery of American patriots who protested a stolen election."

Loomer also has a very prominent admirer: former President Donald Trump.

Trump palled around with Loomer at his New Jersey golf course last year. In a video Loomer posted on X, Trump lavished Loomer with praise. "It's great to have you, and you've been really very special," Trump said. "You work hard, and you are a very opinionated lady. I have to tell you that, and in my opinion, I like that. And I appreciate all of your support, and everybody appreciates your support."

The admiration is mutual. Loomer shared a video on Truth Social describing how she broke up with a man after he told her she was too focused on Trump. She told him that Trump was more important to her. “I have to say that was the end of that relationship," Loomer said. "President Trump’s my number-one priority right now." Trump promoted the video, commenting, "Thank you, Laura!"

This year, Loomer rode on Trump's plane to the Iowa Republican caucus. At a pre-caucus event, Trump gave Loomer an extended shoutout:

Also, a woman who's really talented, and she's been amazing. She just loves the campaign and loves the country… She's a very important person, politically, but she's actually free press in the true sense. She's free press. And she's really become a friend of a lot of great patriots in this country, Laura Loomer. Stand up, please, Laura. Great job. You do great job. You want to try and have her on your side, right? Much better. No. She's fantastic. Thank you, Laura.

In March 2024, Loomer visited with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort. According to reports, Trump wrapped his arm around her waist and said that Loomer is "softer than she looks." Loomer told the Washington Post that she doesn't "really have much of a life" and if Trump doesn't win another term in the White House, "I don’t have anything."

In April 2023, the New York Times, citing four sources, reported that Trump told aides to hire Loomer for a role on his campaign. The report sparked a backlash among other Trump supporters who view Loomer as a liability and she was not ultimately hired.

While some Trump advisers objected to Loomer working on the campaign, others close to him have embraced her. In 2024, at least ten people in Trump’s orbit — including former administration members, current advisers, congressional loyalists, and JD Vance — have appeared on Loomer’s podcast. Often, they sign off from the show with words of praise for Loomer. Lynne Patton, a senior advisor in the Department of Housing and Urban Development during Trump’s presidency and a current senior campaign advisor, told Loomer, “You’re the best, Laura. Keep fighting the good fight and keep Loomering everybody.” Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s first campaign manager in 2016 who was is currently a consultant for RNC, told Loomer that the information she publishes is "unassailable" and has "never been called into question."

Even outside the formal campaign apparatus, Loomer has played a key role in the 2024 election. Loomer frequently promotes bigoted and outrageous conspiracy theories. Often, these spurious claims are quickly adopted by Trump.

Trump adopts Loomer's racist attack on Harris

A self-proclaimed “investigative journalist,” Loomer issues frequent “reports” in support of Trump. One of Loomer’s recent “investigations” was a racist attack on Kamala Harris, reminiscent of Trump's attacks on Barack Obama.

Since at least December 2022, Loomer has repeatedly claimed that Harris is not Black. Harris is multiracial, born to a Black father from Jamaica and an Indian mother.

Loomer repeated the claim again on her podcast in March 2024 during an interview with Peter Brimelow, an anti-immigrant white supremacist with ties to close Trump associates and Rupert Murdoch. She said, “Well there’s a commonality between Letitia James, Kamala Harris, and Fani Willis. They’re all ghetto black women, I guess with the exception of Harris who is more Indian than Black.”

Loomer’s baseless claims about Harris intensified when Harris became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

On July 21, the same day Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race, Loomer posted a “reminder” that Harris only "pretends to be black."

Three days later, Trump posted Loomer’s graphic to his Truth Social account. (Loomer told the Washington Post that a friend made the graphic for her). Then on July 31, Trump reiterated the false claims about Harris’s race during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) conference:

She was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she turned Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?

The same day, at a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump displayed a similar headline to the one in Loomer’s graphic, describing Harris as the first Indian-American senator (which is accurate, but does not mean she is not also Black).

When Trump’s comments about Harris’s race on July 31 came under fire, Loomer quickly became his most vocal defender.

Shortly after the NABJ interview, Loomer tweeted that she had a copy of Harris’s birth certificate, alleging that the document proved that Harris is not Black because the race of her father was listed as “Jamaican” and not “Black” or “African.”

Despite their inaccuracy, Loomer’s claims were seen by millions of people across different social media platforms. One of her posts featuring Harris’s birth certificate was reposted on Truth Social by Donald Trump.

In addition to reposting Loomer’s claims, Trump also made his own posts claiming that Harris was a "stone cold phony" because she was lying about her "racial identity."

Trump repeats Loomer's false claim that Harris used AI to inflate crowd size

After a Harris rally in Detroit on August 7, talk began to circulate in right-wing media circles that photos of the crowd had been enhanced using AI to make an actually empty rally look fuller. This is false, as several videos and live newscasts show a large crowd.

Loomer was not the only one promoting false claims about the Harris campaign using AI to make its crowds seem larger. But she was one of the earliest and most strident, making her first post on X about the Detroit rally on August 9.

Over the next day, Loomer posted about the rally four more times on X. Her posts spread widely and were viewed over 6 million views. On August 11, after Loomer's posts went viral, Trump repeated her false claims on Truth Social.

Trump posts fake images, originally circulated by Loomer, attacking family members of judges presiding over his trials

In April 2024, the existing gag order placed on Trump during his trial over hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels was broadened after Trump began a social media attack on Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter, Loren.

Loomer began promoting a rumor that Loren Merchan had used an image of Trump behind bars as her X avatar. Merchan's daughter was the president of Authentic Campaigns, a firm that works with Democratic candidates. But the account that used the image cited by Loomer did not actually belong to Loren Merchan. Nevertheless, Trump seized on Loomer’s false claim as part of an extended attack on Merchan and his daughter.

A similar incident played out in another trial. During his 2023 fraud trial in New York, Trump posted images to Truth Social showing social media posts allegedly made by the wife of the judge overseeing the case that were disparaging to Trump and featured AI-generated images of him in prison. These images, which were not authentic, were originally circulated by Loomer.

---

mma 8 24 sorta random grab?

### Right-wing media falsely claim that Kamala Harris wants to ban red meat

08/06/24 9:49 AM EDT

### On MSNBC's Deadline White House, Angelo Carusone discusses MAGA plans to undermine the 2024 election

08/05/24 6:54 PM EDT

### Fox News' Greg Gutfeld calls Kamala Harris “conniving” and says she hasn’t “earned” a debate with Donald Trump

08/05/24 6:38 PM EDT

### Trump and his MAGA media boosters try to blame VP Kamala Harris for a drop in the stock market

08/05/24 4:34 PM EDT

### Project 2025 contributor: Kamala Harris “resembles in attitude the slave owners of the old South” for supporting access to abortion

08/05/24

### **Charlie Kirk: “Kamala Harris wants to see the elimination of the United States of America”

08/05/24 12:51 PM EDT

### Donald Trump is set to be interviewed by streamer Adin Ross, who has hosted white nationalists and neo-Nazis

08/05/24 10:09 AM EDT

### **Daily Wire host: Kamala Harris “has the womanish traits of being a cackling, irrational, and venomous serpent”

08/05/24

### **:{Daily Wire host: Kamala Harris “has the womanish traits of being a cackling, irrational, and venomous serpent”}:

08/05/24

August 2, 2024, edition of The Daily Wire's The Andrew Klavan Show

ANDREW KLAVAN (HOST): Now, last week I talked about the fact that this is a very male/female race. And we're not supposed to talk about that because, obviously, the male and females are exactly the same. In fact, you can change them out. We swap them out. They're so much the same. But here we're not gonna lie, so we're gonna say this is a male-female race.

Trump is a studly guy to the point where he exemplifies both the good and the bad of manhood. He can get a little bit over the top sometimes, and sometimes he just has that incredible courage that he displayed when he was shot at — and when he was shot, actually, I should say — and also when he went before the Black journalists, which was not quite as bad, but also dangerous.

And Kamala has the womanish traits of being a cackling, irrational, and venomous serpent without the womanly traits of, grace, generosity, and tenderness. We miss those in her. But those womanish traits are now in control of our politics. // jdv cat lady

----

### On MSNBC, Angelo Carusone discusses Project 2025: “Project 2025 is alive. It's just this one part of it. They're saying, you know, job done.”

08/03/24 11:45 PM EDT

### Jesse Watters on Kamala Harris: “She likes wine. She likes food. She likes to dance. ... She's just not at the level of what you would think would be a president.”

08/02/24

### Manosphere influencers and Rumble streamers respond to Kamala Harris’ presidential candidacy by claiming it's a coup and the 2024 election will be rigged

08/02/24

### Charlie Kirk guest: Women got “the right to vote — after that, it all went downhill”

08/02/24

===

July 30, 2024 rww

Scott Lively wonders if Kamala Harris might be the “Whore of Babylon” mentioned in the Book of Revelation: “We might just be witnessing her grand entrance on the world stage in the form of Kamala Harris – ‘sex-worker’ to the elites.”

mma

Kamala Harris is facing a barrage of misogynistic and racist attacks on TikTok, it’s not just fancams and coconut memes

08/01/24

---

MMA

Dozens of right-wing media personalities suggested Kamala Harris’ political success is due to DEI](

https://www.mediamatters.org/kamala-harris/dozens-right-wing-media-personalities-suggested-kamala-harris-political-success-due)

07/31/24

Since Vice President Kamala Harris became the likely Democratic presidential nominee, many right-wing media figures have tried to make her the face of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. At least 40 right-wing personalities have claimed that she is a “DEI candidate” or insinuated she owes her success to her race, ethnicity, and/or gender.

Right-wing media have a long record of attacking race-conscious policies and studies such as critical race theory and DEI efforts, including suggesting DEI stands for “Didn’t Earn It.”

Now, rather than focusing on Harris’ years of experience and advocacy on a number of key Democratic issues, many in right-wing media have chalked up her likely nomination to “racial idolatry issues,” claimed that she took a “DEI-based path” to the vice presidency, suggested that she will “be the first DEI president” if elected, and said she “literally ‘Didn’t Earn It.’”

## Right-wing media have attacked CRT and DEI and used them to undermine Black achievement

- After years of using “critical race theory” as a vessel for coded racist attacks, right-wing media shifted their focus to diversity, equity, and inclusion.The focus on DEI used many of the same targets as the attacks on CRT, but broadened the scope from just the education system to corporate and government realms. Media Matters, [6/23/21, The New York Times, 1/20/24]

- Right-wing media have blamed or attacked DEI initiatives over a variety of events that DEI had nothing to do with, suggesting the initiatives cause companies to hire unqualified people.Conservative personalities attacked or blamed DEI after a Boeing mechanical malfunction, a Baltimore bridge collapse, the Trump assassination attempt, and Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7. Media Matters, [1/25/24, 3/30/24; The Washington Post, 7/16/24; Fox News, Fox News @ Night, 6/18/24]

- Right-wing media personalities have used DEI to belittle the achievements of Black people in positions of authority by suggesting the acronym stands for “Didn’t Earn It.”Fox News’ Jesse Watters even labeled Vice President Kamala Harris the “DEI vice president” back in January. Media Matters, [4/5/24; Fox News,Jesse Watters Primetime, 1/24/24]

## Here are 40 right-wing commentators who have used DEI to attack Harris, or claimed she was chosen for her race or sex, since Biden dropped out of the presidential race

1. Fox News host Greg Gutfeld claimed Harris’ selection mimicked DEI hiring practices.Gutfeld said on The Five: “The New York Times had profound concerns about her electability. They said that the process of public scrutiny was ignored. What does that sound like to you? It’s DEI.” Fox News, *The Five*, [7/22/24]

1. Fox News host Laura Ingraham dismissed concerns about calling Harris a “DEI candidate.”Ingraham: “People have called Kamala the DEI candidate, but Democrats, they don't like that.” After playing one criticism of the attack she asked, “That's it?” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [7/23/24]

1. Fox News host Jesse Watters claimed “the only reason” Harris is vice president is because of “the DEI deal Biden cut with [Sen.] Bernie [Sanders] to seal the nomination.” He also said “many people believe Kamala Harris is being promoted because of what she looks like and nothing else.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [7/23/24]

1. OutKick’s Clay Travis called Harris “DEI personified.”Travis: “Kamala Harris, not that bright, not that accomplished, doesn't have a family of her own, never had kids, got her scarred start in politics as the side chick of a Democrat San Francisco mayor. She is DEI personified.” OutKick, *OutKick the Show*, [7/21/24]

1. Fox News contributor Leo Terrell posted on X (formerly Twitter) that “Kamala is the choice of the DEI Party.” He also described the Democrats as the “Race Card Party,” “Affirmative Action Party,” and the “Critical Race Party.” Twitter/X, [7/21/24]

1. Fox News contributor Ben Domenich said Harris took the “DEI-based path” to the vice presidency.Fox News, *Life, Liberty, & Levin*, [7/21/24]

1. Newsmax host Sebastian Gorka called Harris “literally a DEI hire” and said she will be the nominee because her “skin color is the correct DEI color.” Gorka later added, “So this choice, this trap they [Democrats] have created for themselves of Kamala, the DEI hire, it's not going to be very popular with the average American. So keep up, keep it up, keep on going, Kamala.” Newsmax, Newsmax broadcast, [7/21/24]

1. Later in that segment, Newsmax anchor Bob Brooks agreed with Gorka, saying, “She very well might be the first DEI president.” Newsmax, Newsmax broadcast, [7/21/24]

1. In a social media rant, Newsmax host Chris Plante said Harris is “a woman of color” and “that’s why she was chosen in the first place.” Twitter/X, [7/23/24]

1. On Jesse Watters Primetime, podcast host Jason Calacanis discussed Harris as the nominee, telling Watters, “I think what they are going to learn is that the DEI candidate concept is just not going to work.”Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [7/21/24]

1. Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk repeatedly mispronounced Harris' name while calling her “deeply scary” and “a DEI candidate.” Kirk told his audience, “He chose her based on the same criteria of DEI that got Trump shot, that has been destroying this country. The very same DEI ideology that has been sweeping the nation is now the standard bearer of the Democrat Party, and I think that is perfect.” Real America’s Voice, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [7/22/24]

1. Daily Wire host Matt Walsh called Harris “the DEI vice president.”He added, “It's quite fitting that the first Black — well, sort of Black — female presidential nominee was handed the job and didn't earn it.” The Daily Wire, *The Matt Walsh Show*, [7/22/24]

1. Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro claimed “the only reason” Harris is vice president is “because of her sex and her race.” “If she were a white man,” Shapiro continued, “she never would have even been a senator from California let alone vice president of the United States. Everyone including Democrats knows this.” The Daily Wire, *The Ben Shapiro Show*, [7/23/24]

1. Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly said “there’s no doubt” that “Harris is a DEI hire” on Sean Hannity’s radio show.O’Reilly was responding to Hannity’s comment that “I don’t like the DEI argument. … I think that is ridiculous.” O’Reilly claimed, “I don’t think it’s a ridiculous argument, but I don’t think it advances the cause of the election. Kamala Harris is a DEI hire; there’s no doubt about it. Now, if you want to state this as a fact, I don’t have a problem, because it is a fact. But that’s not going to get voters mobilized.” Premiere Radio Networks,*The Sean Hannity Show*, [7/24/24]

27. BlazeTV’s Glenn Beck claimed that Democrats “took [Harris] on for DEI purposes.” Beck: “You [Democrats] took her on -- you know you took her on because of DEI. You took her on for DEI purposes and now you're not going to let her go because you say she's not qualified?” BlazeTV,*The Glenn Beck Program*, [7/23/24]

1. The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles said Biden picked Harris as his running mate “because she's a Black woman.” Knowles said, “She was picked for VP, it would seem, based on the way that she ran in 2020. Now, of course that’s not true. As Joe Biden told us, she was picked for VP because she's a Black woman. … The way it was all pitched, after the fact, was that Kamala was picked based on her campaign, based on her ability to be president should anything happen to Joe Biden.” The Daily Wire, *The Michael Knowles Show*, [7/24/24]

1. Right-wing host Steve Deace claimed that Democrats are coalescing behind Harris because of “racial idolatry issues.”BlazeTV, *The Steve Deace Show*, [7/22/24]

1. TimCast IRL’s Ian Crossland said Harris was made vice president because of her skin color. Crossland: “I don't see leadership material in the woman, but they put her in as the vice president because she was Black. She's not even Black — I hate that term — but like because of her dark skin.” *TimCast IRL*, [7/24/24]

1. Right-wing host Jesse Kelly said, “She's a DEI hire. She's a disgrace. Every part of her career has been an embarrassment.” The First, *I’m Right w/Jesse Kelly*, [7/24/24]

1. Dinesh D’Souza called Harris a “walking ad for like DEI” on his podcast. His guest, Turning Point USA’s Caitlin Sinclair, called Harris “100% a DEI hire.” Salem Podcast Network, *The Dinesh D’Souza Podcast*, [7/22/24]

1. Rudy Giuliani called Harris the “first DEI pick for president” on his podcast.He claimed Harris was unqualified and her rise is based on “gender and race.” YouTube, *America’s Mayor Live*, [7/23/24]

1. On her podcast, Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump said that the Democrats are stuck with Harris as a “DEI hire.” Trump added, “That’s exactly who she’s always been.” *The Right View with Lara Trump*, [7/24/24]

1. Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said on his latest show: “They have to go with Kamala because she’s sorta Black, sorta Indian, and a woman – for DEI reasons.”He added, “She’s a moron, in a job she doesn’t deserve. That’s the whole point of DEI is to elevate people who don’t deserve their jobs to positions of power.” Tucker Carlson Network, *The Tucker Carlson Show*, [7/22/24]

1. On Carlson’s show, far-right personality Jack Posobiec agreed with Carlson’s attribution of Harris’ success to DEI, saying “it’s tough” for Democrats to “pass her over” because of DEI.Tucker Carlson Network,*The Tucker Carlson Show*, [7/22/24]

1. Right-wing podcaster Dave Rubin called Harris a “diversity hire who nobody likes.” Twitter/X, [7/21/24]

1. Right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson said that if Harris picked Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg as her running mate it would be the “full DEI presidential ticket.”He continued, “There you go. You have … the full victimhood, class presidential ticket.” *The Benny Show*, [7/21/24]

1. Daily Wire host Jordan Peterson called Harris “DEI Barbie'' on social media.He posted, “My new grandson and me giving the thumbs up to the news that @thedemocrats most qualified candidate is DEI Barbie.” Twitter/X, [7/22/24]

1. On Fox News, Project 2025 contributor Monica Crowley said former first lady Michelle Obama will run for president because she “squares the Kamala Harris circle: being a minority and a DEI hire.”Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [7/21/24]

1. The Manhattan Institute’s Chris Rufo posted a screenshot of a CNN article about Biden considering selecting a Black woman for his running mate in 2020, calling it the “definition of DEI.”He wrote on X: “Selecting on ancestry and anatomy, rather than talent and virtue, is the definition of DEI.” Twitter/X, [7/24/24]

1. Townhall columnist Kurt Schlichter called Harris a “cackling DEI hire.” He called her “incompetent” and added, “She is the personification of every idiot promoted over more worthy people that you have ever encountered in you daily life.” Twitter/X, [7/24/24]

1. Conservative podcaster Bill Mitchell claimed Biden had better options to pick for his running mate in 2020, adding, “Does anyone doubt he chose Kamala because she's a black woman?”Twitter/X, [7/24/24]

1. Right-wing personality Rob Smith, who has been a Turning Point USA contributor, called Harris the “DEI soon-to-be nominee for President.”Twitter/X, [7/22/24; Fox News, accessed 7/22/24]

1. Newsweek senior editor-at-large Josh Hammer cited DEI as the reason Kamala Harris “gets leapfrogged from a dud of a candidacy in 2020 to now being the nominee.”Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [7/25/24]

1. Washington Examiner’s Zachary Faria wrote an editorial titled “Democratic challenges to Harris are DEI’d on arrival.”Washington Examiner, [7/22/24]

1. Senior editor at the Federalist David Harsanyi wrote on X, “Kamala Harris was definitely a DEI hire.” Twitter/X, [7/25/24]

1. Daily Caller contributor Carly Atchinson Bird claimed Harris was picked as Biden’s VP “because of her identity as a black and South Asian American woman.”Her op-ed o misleadingly stated, “The Democrat machine successfully circumvented millions of primary voters in what has become, essentially, a coronation of Harris just over 100 days before November.” The Daily Caller, [7/23/24; PBS, 7/24/24]

1. Right-wing figure James Lindsay responded “Definitely DEI all along” toformer Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL)pointing out Harris’ credentials on social media.Twitter/X, [7/25/24]

1. Manhattan Institute’s Ilya Shapiro: “She really is running a DEI campaign.”He posted in response to a fundraiser called “White dudes for Harris.” Twitter/X, [7/26/24]

1. Right-wing comedian Terrence K. Williams wrote, “Kamala Harris is DEI!” adding that “She literally ‘Didn’t Earn It.’”Twitter/X, [7/26/24]

1. Right-wing social media account Amuse wrote, “Sadly Kamala is a DEI hire plain and simple.” Twitter/X, [7/28/24]

===

### Right-wing media falsely claim that Kamala Harris is telling Americans not to have kids because of climate change

07/31/24 12:57 PM EDT

### Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner on peers at NABJ convention: "Where are the journalists who are not activists?”

07/31/24 12:56 PM EDT

### Fox and Friends hosts make excuses for Trump not agreeing to a debate

07/31/24 11:25 AM EDT

### Google demonetized The Heartland Institute in June. Here are 4 more channels that appear to violate its misinformation policy.

07/31/24 11:10 AM EDT

### It wasn't just a single rant about “childless cat ladies.” Here are 13 other times JD Vance disparaged people who “don't have kids.”

07/31/24 10:42 AM EDT

### National TV news coverage of devastating Western U.S. and Canadian wildfires rarely connected them to climate change

07/31/24 10:38 AM EDT

### Michael Knowles says Kamala Harris sounds “a little bit more jive”

07/31/24 10:27 AM EDT

### Fox News freaks out over “White Dudes for Harris”

07/31/24 10:23 AM EDT

### Fox News avoided covering another unpopular abortion ban

07/31/24 9:00 AM EDT

### Gretchen Carlson: Project 2025 “is effectively what Donald Trump would do”

07/30/24 10:54 PM EDT

### Kaitlan Collins and Isaac Arnsdorf explain why the Trump campaign can't fully distance itself from Project 2025

07/30/24 10:37 PM EDT

July 24, 2024 rww

Radical right-wing activist Beverly Beatty, who first made a name for herself by vandalizing Black Lives Matter murals, has been sentenced to 41 months in prison for blocking access to reproductive health clinics.
Dave Kubal gripes that “the progressive agenda is a horseless carriage careening off the cliff. In the last decade, we have gone from rights for gays and lesbians to legalized same-sex marriage to LGBTQ rights to 50+ genders to transsexuals’ rights to picking your pronouns to legalized mutilation of minors without parental consent.”
Self-proclaimed “prophet” Kat Kerr claims that former President Donald Trump “actually is our president right now, legally in Heaven and legally by our laws.”

Mat Staver says that Kamala Harris “has a very evil, wicked Jezebelian agenda, so don’t underestimate her Jezebel spirit.”

Finally, Todd Starnes actually had the gall to declare that Black voters will support Harris because “there’s a vast number of Americans who will only vote for candidates based on skin color and political party — even if their picks are incompetent morons.” Um, couldn’t the same be said for white Trump voters?

===

July 24, 2024 rww

Laura K. Field @ Politico: JD Vance Has a Bunch of Weird Views on Gender

The one instinct that Vance and the rest of the New Right share is a deep skepticism about modern feminism and gender equality — or what the New Right calls “gender ideology.” Overt chauvinism that seeks to roll back much of feminism’s gains is one of the most obvious unifying threads of this varied movement, and Trump’s choice of Vance anoints and entrenches it into the culture-war side of the MAGA movement.

Joe Jervis: Sen. Tommy Tuberville: Most Immigrants Are “Garbage”

“How can you put somebody in charge of a situation where you let 15, possibly even 20 million people come in our country? “Now, some of these people are good, but most of them are garbage. They come from jails and prisons from other countries.”

Jesse Scheckner @ Florida Politics: Donald Trump to keynote Turning Point Action faith summit in West Palm Beach

Donald Trump will deliver the keynote address at a Christian conservative political conference this weekend in West Palm Beach. Turning Point Action, the political arm of the influential Turning Point USA nonprofit, announced he will headline its “Believers’ Summit.”

Angry White Men: Laura Loomer: Kamala Harris Is A ‘Braindead Bimbo’ And ‘Not A Woman Of Color’

On her Rumble show, Loomer Unleashed, Trump ally Laura Loomer went on a racist and misogynistic rant about Vice President Kamala Harris. Loomer, a white nationalist and conspiracy theorist, referred to Harris as a “braindead bimbo” who is not Black or a “woman of color.”

Katherine Stewart @ Religion News Service: Road to Majority conference showed how Trump plans to keep the Christian right close

As the GOP pivots to an unpredictable general election season, it remains committed to framing the contest in the familiar tropes of the Christian right. The choice the nation faces, the party leaders assert, is between godly governance or the triumph of the ungodly. Former President Donald Trump, according to this narrative, has divine protection — and the proof is in his survival of the assassination attempt on July 13.

Alex Griffing @ Mediaite: Candace Owens Dropped From Trump Jr. Event Promoted with Dad’s 2024 Campaign Logo

Highly controversial media personality and conspiracy theorist Candace Owens dropped Tuesday from an event with Donald Trump Jr. that was promoted with the Trump 2024 campaign logo attached to it.

Sarah Ladd @ Kentucky Lantern: Kim Davis’ legal counsel moves to make her appeal a springboard for overturning marriage rights

A conservative legal group has filed a brief on behalf of a former Kentucky county clerk that it says could lead to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the right of same-sex couples to marry.

mma

### Fox News and Newsmax have falsely suggested Kamala Harris was “border czar” 129 times since Biden’s withdrawal

07/25/24 5:27 PM EDT

### Resurfaced audio: J.D. Vance appeared on Breitbart to claim “the Kamala Harrises” “want to take our kids and brainwash them” because “they don't have kids”

07/25/24 4:10 PM EDT

### President of Project 2025 partner brags about their hands-on role passing abortion bans at the state level

07/25/24 1:36 PM EDT

### Donald Trump told Fox he “agree[s]” with parts of the radical Project 2025 agenda. Which ones?

07/25/24 12:20 PM EDT

### Michael Knowles defends J.D. Vance: “He says the country is run by childless cat ladies. Show me the lie.”

07/25/24 10:40 AM EDT

### Fox Business claims quarterly economic report showing strong growth is “fairy-tale numbers”

07/25/24 10:21 AM EDT

### The group behind Project 2025 frequently bragged in fundraising materials about its influence on Trump

07/25/24 9:53 AM EDT

### Bill O'Reilly tells Sean Hannity that Kamala Harris is “the most radical abortion person the country has ever seen”

07/24/24 5:05 PM EDT

### MSNBC panelists describe how Project 2025 intends to raise middle-class taxes in a second Trump administration

07/24/24 3:18 PM EDT

### Daily Wire host Matt Walsh attacks VP Kamala Harris for having a career

07/24/24 3:09 PM EDT

===

mma

right-wing media’s playbook for attacking Kamala Harris: A flood of misogyny and racism

Right-wing media spared no time in hurling racist and sexist attacks against the likely Democratic presidential candidate

WRITTEN BY PAYTON ARMSTRONG, CHARIS HOARD & EMMA MAE WEBER

PUBLISHED 07/23/24

Since President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential election and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, right-wing media have launched sexist and racist attacks at Harris to try to diminish her qualifications. They’ve claimed that she can’t be president because she doesn’t have biological children, labeled her “the ultimate diversity, equity, and inclusion candidate,” fixated on her laugh, claimed that she promotes "the occult,” and likened her to “Jezebel.”

## Biden suspended his presidential campaign and endorsed Harris on July 21

- In a statement released on July 21, Biden suspended his presidential campaign after weeks of calls to step down from top Democrats.Weeks after a poor debate performance and amid mounting pressure to step aside, Biden announced he would serve the remainder of his term, and he subsequently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination for president, thanking her for being an “extraordinary partner.” Bloomberg, [7/21/24; The Hill, 7/19/24]

- Harris announced her official bid for the presidency hours after Biden's suspension, with multiple Democratic lawmakers expressing their support.Harris asserted in a statement that “my intention is to earn and win this nomination.” The Associated Press, [7/21/24]

## Right-wing media have attacked Harris over her race and gender for years

- Right-wing media have lobbed racist and sexist attacks at Harris for years, calling her a “DEI hire” who “gets more favorable treatment because of her race and gender.” Right-wing figures have also referred to Harris as an example of ”why DEI doesn’t work" and claimed she “launched her political career in [the] bedroom.” Media Matters, [7/3/24, 7/11/24]

## Right-wing media sexualized Harris and diminished her accomplishments with sexist attacks

- Infowars host Alex Jones called Harris a “fleshlight.” When speculating about a Hillary Clinton ticket, Jones said, “So don't think they won't try to push Kamala out and put her in, or have Kamala, who's dumber than a box of rocks, she's basically a fleshlight, put Hillary on as her VP. And boy if she does that, she’s gonna get JFK’d.” Infowars, *The Alex Jones Show*, [7/22/24]

- Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro said that Harris has “never earned anything,” claiming that she got “handed her original post in California state government because she was sleeping with Willie Brown.”Shapiro went on to claim that “she lucked into her job as attorney general of the state and then from there, she really lucked into her job as senator. … Then she proceeded to luck into her job as vice president. Earn and win the nomination. She’s not earning and winning anything. She’s inheriting it.” The Daily Wire, *The Ben Shapiro Show*, [7/21/24]

- Right-wing influencer Dom Lucre shared a photo of Harris and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown with the caption, “How did Kamala Harris become our Vice President? I heard she has always been a suck up to wealthy Democrats.”In a similar post, Lucre also jeered, “Kamala Harris started her career on her knees how can we trust her to stand up for this country?” Twitter/X, [7/22/24, 7/22/24; The New York Times, 1/14/21]

- Trump ally Roger Stone posted: “Kamala Harris campaign now selling official campaign kneepads.” Twitter/X, [7/21/24]

- Rumble host and Trump ally Laura Loomer said that Harris “was once an escort and … she got her career started giving blow jobs to successful, rich, black men,” including Willie Brown and Montel Williams.In a now-unavailable post on X (formerly Twitter), Loomer said that Harris performed a sex act on Brown “while he was a married man in exchange for political power. Here she is ‘dating’’ @Montel_Williams in 2001, who appears to be holding hands with more than one woman at the same time on the red carpet.” The woman who Williams was holding hands with in 2001 was his daughter, and he was separated from his wife when he and Harris dated. The Wrap, [7/22/24; The Associated Press, 7/22/24]

- OutKick host Clay Travis said Kamala Harris “got her start in politics by sex as a mistress of a married man.”He also attacked Kamala for not having kids, saying, “If you're a married woman with kids, if you're a grandma with kids, do you have any respect for the woman who is the mistress of the married man and never even became his second wife and had kids with him on her own?” OutKick, *OutKick The Show with Clay Travis*, [7/22/24]

## Right-wing media both called Harris the “DEI candidate” and questioned her Blackness

- Daily Wire host Matt Walsh said Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee would be “a poetic way for us to end this year of reckoning with the madness of DEI.” Walsh then went on to call Harris “sort of Black,” saying she “lacks the IQ and the competence to lead this country” and claiming she has “never earned anything through her own merit.” The Daily Wire, *The Matt Walsh Show*, [7/22/24]

- OutKick host Clay Travis claimed that Harris “failed her way up” and is “the ultimate diversity, equity, and inclusion candidate.” Travis also asserted that ”we just saw what DEI does, at the Secret Service; it nearly gets the president killed," in reference to the attempted assassination on former President Donald Trump last week. Outkick, *Outkick The Show with Clay Travis*, [7/21/24; Media Matters, 7/15/24]

- Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk said Harris was chosen because of “the same criteria of DEI that got Trump shot.”Kirk also said, “You could not have a better example of the worst aspects of the country or the Democrat party. But now — that's where she is. She is a DEI candidate.” Real America’s Voice, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [7/22/24]

- Fixating on Harris’ race and gender, Fox contributor Tammy Bruce warned that the fear of being called racist or sexist will be weaponized by the Democratic Party, claiming their approach is like domestic violence.Bruce said Democrats will turn to “more identity politics. There will be more accusations. There will be accusations that if you don't like Kamala — we’ve already heard it — you are a sexist and you are a racist and you’re everything else. … It’s a way to control you. Where it’s dangerous to speak up, dangerous to contradict the masters of the universe out there, where you will do as you are told or you will be punished. It is very similar to the nature of domestic violence. It is domestic violence writ large.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [7/22/24]

- Right-wing personality Rob Smith, who has been a Turning Point USA contributor, called Harris the “DEI soon-to-be nominee for President.”Twitter/X, [7/22/24; Fox News, accessed 7/22/24]

- Newsmax host Sebastian Gorka said that Harris “very well might be the first DEI president.”Gorka added that Harris “is literally a DEI hire, a woman who laughs about little yellow school buses and Venn diagrams, who cackles like an insane woman.” Newsmax, *Newsmax broadcast*, [7/21/24]

- On Newsmax, guest Chris Kohls mispronounced Harris’ first name and questioned, “Is she Black? Is she Indian? Nobody knows.”Host Sebastian Gorka replied that it’s not racist to mispronounce Harris’ name if we “work out how her slave-owning Jamaican ancestors pronounced that name.” Newsmax, *Rob Schmitt Tonight,* [7/22/24]

- Newsmax guest Joel Gilbert said Harris “has no common experiences with Black Americans.”Gilbert, author of a book that speculates Michelle Obama will run for president, continued, ”She doesn't even bring the African American vote that they've hemorrhaged to Donald Trump because she's not African American. Her mother is from India. Her father's from Jamaica. She grew up in Canada, and she married a white Jewish guy." Newsmax, *Greg Kelly Reports*, [7/21/24]

- YourVoice America's Bill Mitchell: “Kamala Harris never ran as a black woman until 2020.” Twitter/X, [7/22/24]

## Right-wing media also claimed that Harris can’t be president because she has no biological children

- Article III Project senior counsel Will Chamberlain asserted that the “really simple, underdiscussed reason why Kamala Harris shouldn’t be President” is because she has “no children.”(While Harris has no biological children, she became the stepmother of Cole and Ella Emhoff when she married second gentleman Doug Emhoff in 2014.) Twitter/X, [7/21/24; Today, 7/19/24]

- Laura Loomer said: “A woman who has no biological children of her own should not be allowed to make decisions in the White House for your children.”Loomer also attacked Harris' passion for reproductive justice, jeering “Republicans need to … ask why a woman with no kids of her own and just a scarred up uterus is so obsessed with wanting to kill your babies." Twitter/X, [7/22/24]

- While listing reasons why Harris shouldn’t be president, OutKick’s Clay Travis noted that Harris “doesn't have any kids of her own.”He also called Harris a “side chick” who “got her start in politics by banging Willie Brown” and said he doesn’t think Harris will “really motivate Black voters very well, particularly Black men.” OutKick, OutKick The Show with Clay Travis, [7/21/24]

## Right-wing media fixated on Harris’ laugh, saying she sounds like a “giggling idiot” and a “hyena”

- Fox host Sean Hannity said Harris is facing a “likability crisis” and voters “detest” Harris because of her laugh. He then characterized Harris as “your giggling vice president.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [7/21/24]

- Fox analyst Brit Hume said that “you can argue a great many Americans think Harris is a giggling idiot, there’s no doubt about that.” Fox News, *Fox News Live*, [7/21/24]

- Roger Stone posted an attack ad from Make America Great Again Inc.and wrote, “Lying, hyena-laughing Kamala.”Twitter, [7/21/24]

## Right-wing media launched other bizarre attacks, including likening Harris to “Jezebel” and accusing her of promoting “the occult”

- Right-wing commentator and self-described prophet Lance Wallnau said that Harris “represents something which I believe is probably the amalgam of the spirit of Jezebel in a way that will be even more ominous than Hillary because she'll bring a racial component and she's younger.”Twitter/X, [7/22/24; Rolling Stone, 9/29/22]

- Right-wing pundit James Lindsay claimed that Harris’ repetition of the statement “to see what can be, unburdened by what has been” is “occult” and “it's a Marxist and Luciferian incantation.”Twitter/X, [7/21/24]

- On her radio show, former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis endorsed Lindsay’s analysis, declaring that Ellis complained that “this is who is going to be likely the Democrat nominee. … If we are going to genuinely claim being a Christian nation and advancing policy that is based in and rooted in a biblical worldview or if we are going to elect someone in November that is specifically, intentionally, and obviously pushing for a Luciferian incantation and the occult.” American Family Radio, *Jenna Ellis in the Morning*, [7/22/24]

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Kamala Harris was never the “border czar” despite right-wing claims

07/22/24 4:57 PM EDT

Right-wing media recycle old attacks on Kamala Harris for linking to a cash bail fund in 2020

07/22/24 4:49 PM EDT

On CNN, Dana Bash debunks the right wing media claim that Kamala Harris is the “border czar”

07/22/24 2:23 PM EDT

Charlie Kirk repeatedly mispronounces Kamala Harris' name while calling her “deeply scary” and “a DEI candidate”

07/22/24 1:43 PM EDT

Kamala Harris running for president has reignited the right's disgusting birther crusade

07/22/24 mma

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flailing mma

President Joe Biden’s decision to end his reelection campaign and support Vice President Kamala Harris has sent the right-wing propaganda machine spiraling out of control, with its anti-Biden message honed over the past few years replaced by total chaos.

The right spent years arguing that Biden was an addled old man who is raising the prices Americans pay for gas and groceries while deliberately importing migrants to harm their families. While this litany was typically based in deception and misinformation, it overlapped with the primary concerns of swing voters and helped generate an environment where polls saw the president losing to former President Donald Trump in November.

But Biden upended the race on Sunday, announcing that he would “stand down” his campaign and endorsing Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination. His decision was a blow to the Trump campaign, which had geared its strategy around Biden running for reelection and reportedly believed Biden’s nomination gave Trump the best chance to prevail.

The subsequent hours have revealed that the right is totally unprepared for how to respond to a Harris candidacy. She has been vice president for three years and a prominent senator before that — but it seems as if they’ve never put together a playbook with compelling arguments against her. The resulting morass points to major vulnerabilities in the right-wing propaganda ecosystem.

Fox News scrambled for its opposition research but seemed unable to put together consistent arguments that might resonate.

Soon after Biden’s announcement, anchor Harris Faulkner offered the ludicrous argument that his decision not to seek reelection constituted a “threat” to “democracy.”

That evening, Fox’s Jesse Watters hosted Trump, his vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance, and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to complain about Biden dropping out, while prime-time host Sean Hannity took shots at Harris’ laugh and, quite literally, grasped at straws.

On successive hours, Fox contributors brought on to discuss Harris attacked her as too tough on crime and too soft on crime.

Monday morning featured a montage of old clips of Biden saying he was running, as if to complain about how unfair the president had been to his opponent by ending his campaign.

All the while, MAGA influencers were plastering X with unhinged conspiracy theories about Biden’s decision to step down from his race and absurdly characterizing Harris’ candidacy as a “coup.”

Harris would be the first woman president and is the biracial daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, and the right is infested with weird little freaks whose incentives favor being the worst possible versions of themselves, so the resulting discourse has featured a hefty helping of racism and sexism. They’ve branded her as a “DEI hire” who is “a little bit uppity”; pushed the racist conspiracy theory that she is not eligible for the presidency due to her parentage; focused attention on her decades-old dating history; and suggested it is disqualifying that she has “No children.” (“And no, becoming a step-parent to older teenagers doesn’t count.”)

Meanwhile, the GOP organ that generates decontextualized fodder for right-wing media is reupping video of Harris describing her outfit while introducing herself at an event whose attendees included blind people, while Republicans are claiming in rapid succession that they’ll sue to keep Biden on the ballot and that he should immediately step down from the presidency.

The chaos demonstrates what Kat Abughazaleh described in a Mother Jones video earlier this month as Fox’s “Kamala problem”: The right-wing propaganda network has struggled “to villainize her properly” over the past several years as it previously did to Hillary Clinton before her 2016 run, leaving its hosts flat-footed.

It also points to a critical weakness in the composition of the right-wing ecosystem: With radio giant Rush Limbaugh and Fox founder Roger Ailes dead, and former Fox star Tucker Carlson banished from its airwaves, the propaganda apparatus is an orchestra without a conductor who can lead its disparate parts to the same consistent message.

Instead, the closest thing the right has to a conductor is Trump. But his lack of discipline and unhinged nature makes him unsuited for the role: He’s spent the last day melting down on Truth Social, arguing that Biden is faking COVID-19, that he may back out of a presidential debate against Harris, that Republicans should somehow be “reimbursed for fraud” for any money spent against Biden, that Biden may “wake up and forget that he dropped out of the race,” and that his decision to drop out makes Democrats “the real THREAT TO DEMOCRACY.”

Right-wing propagandists are part of a mammoth and well-funded industry, and I expect them to figure out something more coherent eventually. But there’s not that much time before the election, and they seem short on ideas thus far.

mma

### Kamala Harris running for president has reignited the right's disgusting birther crusade

07/22/24 12:26 PM EDT

### Flailing right-wing media are not ready for Kamala Harris

07/22/24 12:08 PM EDT

### Fake Harris audio spreads like wildfire on TikTok after Biden’s announcement

07/22/24 11:42 AM EDT

### Videos with millions of views argue that a Leviathan is preparing to wreak havoc on humanity

07/22/24 9:42 AM EDT

### Newsmax host: Kamala Harris “very well might be the first DEI president”

07/22/24 9:04 AM EDT

### Sean Hannity claims voters “detest” Kamala Harris because of her laughter

07/21/24 9:53 PM EDT

### On Fox News, Project 2025 contributor says Michelle Obama will run for president because she “squares the Kamala Harris circle: being a minority and a DEI hire”

07/21/24 9:42 PM EDT

### Daily Wire host admits Trump is the "most pro-life president we've ever had" who is being quiet on the subject to get elected

07/21/24 9:18 PM EDT

### Fox News' Jesse Watters: Hillary Clinton endorsed Kamala Harris “because she is a woman”

07/21/24 8:30 PM EDT

### Right-wing media resort to unhinged conspiracy theories after Biden announces he will not seek reelection

07/21/24 5:12 PM EDT

### Candace Owens on VP Harris: “Kamala is a little bit uppity”

07/21/24 5:04 PM EDT

CANDACE OWENS (HOST): So they, at some point, months ago, made the decision that we're gonna have to get rid of him, but we want to wait until we're close to the conventions that we can select who we want. I personally think they want a Governor Whitmer. I personally think that they want a Gavin Newsom. They do not want Kamala Harris, and so this convention is going to get interesting. I'm not buying all of this rhetoric of everyone saying, I'm — I stand with her.

They have to say that, and then I think some calls are gonna be made. I think it is entirely plausible that they put somebody else in there that they actually want and can control because Kamala is a little bit uppity. And what I mean by that is she has an attitude, and she gets stubborn, and she has not been as malleable as a Biden or Clinton type person would be. So keep your eyes and keep your eels — ears peeled because, there is more drama. As I said, no one's sleeping until November.

### The right's incoherent response to Biden dropping out

07/21/24

===

### Fake Harris audio spreads like wildfire on TikTok after Biden’s announcement

07/22/24

Incoherent audio wrongly attributed to Vice President Kamala Harris is going viral among right-wing accounts on TikTok following President Joe Biden’s exit from the presidential race.

“Today is today and yesterday was today yesterday,” says a slurring, digitally altered Harris. “Tomorrow will be today tomorrow, so live today so the future today will be as the past today as it is tomorrow.”

This audio originates from a manipulated video of Harris’ 2023 speech at Howard University. Over 2,300 individual TikTok posts have used this sound, meaning it plays in the background of each video.

After Biden’s announcement, many users wrongly attributed the audio to Harris and used it to attack her.

“After hearing this speech from Kamala Harris, I’m definitely voting,” says the overlaid text of one user’s video. The video’s caption also reads, “Don’t vote for her just because shes a woman” with the hashtags “#trump2024” and “#trumptrain.” The video has already racked up over 350,000 views.

Video

Another video posted by a pro-Trump account after Biden’s announcement read, “When I lose all HOPE, I remember a quote by Kamala Harris.” It has over 4.1 million views.

[PIX TWT]

TikTok’s inability to identify and stop the spread of viral and malicious misinformation about a presidential candidate sets a bad precedent for the future of its election integrity efforts.

---==

===

MMA

It’s 2024, so everyone reading this knows exactly what the deal is with birthers. We know that the Constitution requires anyone running for president to be a “natural born Citizen,” and that Vice President Kamala Harris, having been born in Oakland, California, surely qualifies.

Birtherism must be understood not as a wild conspiracy theory about where Kamala Harris and Barack Obama were born, but rather as a slur against their status as Americans. There are no good-faith legal questions about whether or not Kamala Harris is a natural born citizen, just like there were no good-faith questions about where Barack Obama’s mother gave birth to him. We all know the deal. MAGA pundits are pushing birtherism against Harris now — like they did to Obama before her — in order to signal to their audience that people like Harris and Obama are somehow less American. Regardless of your politics, these claims deserve nothing more than absolute contempt.

The biggest name currently spreading this is Trump associate Tom Fitton. You may remember that Fitton, the Judicial Watch president who is not a lawyer, reportedly advised former President Donald Trump to keep secretive government documents that the former president had stored on a ballroom stage and in a bathroom at Mar-a-Lago. (Ironically, in 2009 — years before Trump picked up birtherism and used it to help take over GOP politics — Fitton was one of the few right-wing voices who spoke dismissively about birtherism against Obama, saying he had not “seen any credible evidence Barack Obama is not a U.S. citizen eligible for the presidency.”)

CitationVia @TomFitton

Fitton links to an August 14, 2020, piece by John Eastman in Newsweek. Eastman is the intellectual architect of Trump’s attempt to remain in office despite losing the election, which culminated in January 6. (A judge has since ruled that Eastman should be disbarred for his actions.) We addressed this at the time when then-Trump campaign official Jenna Ellis reposted Fitton’s identical tweet.

The following note is on the top of the Eastman column that Fitton now links to:

Editor's note, 8/14: This op-ed is being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia. We apologize. The essay, by John Eastman, was intended to explore a minority legal argument about the definition of who is a "natural-born citizen" in the United States. But to many readers, the essay inevitably conveyed the ugly message that Senator Kamala Harris, a woman of color and the child of immigrants, was somehow not truly American.

The op-ed was never intended to spark or to take part in the racist lie of Birtherism, the conspiracy theory aimed at delegitimizing Barack Obama, but we should have recognized the potential, even probability, that that could happen. Readers hold us accountable for all that we publish, as they should; we hold ourselves accountable, too. We entirely failed to anticipate the ways in which the essay would be interpreted, distorted and weaponized.

As we said in our earlier note, this essay was an attempt to examine a legal argument about the difference between "natural born" and "naturalized," the latter being ineligible to hold the office of president. In the days since the op-ed was published, we saw that it was being shared in forums and social networks notorious for disinformation, conspiracy theories and racist hatred. All of us at Newsweek are horrified that this op-ed gave rise to a wave of vile Birtherism directed at Senator Harris. Many readers have demanded that we retract the essay, but we believe in being transparent and are therefore allowing it to remain online, with this note attached.

None of this has stopped other MAGA figures online from pushing this ridiculous, bigoted argument now that Harris is poised to be at the top of the Democratic ticket. And yes, free speech gives them the right to spread this bigoted bullshit.

As the late, great Simon Maloy wrote in 2019:

The Obama-era birthers never came anywhere close to proving their accusation, and it didn’t matter one bit. The only thing they cared about was getting people to treat their obvious bullshit with a modicum of seriousness. The country’s most famous birther was challenged repeatedly to back up his outlandish allegations about President Barack Obama; he never did, but flogging the racist conspiracy theory made him a hero to the political movement that eventually elected him president.

===

an 7 24

the attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris, now the leading candidate to become the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nominee after President Joe Biden’s historic decision to exit his race for re-election, have begun, as one expert on authoritarianism and fascism points to former top Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway’s remarks Sunday as an example of the racism and propaganda voters can expect to see.

“Pay attention to propaganda narratives that will consolidate in next days. Propagandists know you should build on existing prejudices when introducing a new hate object or theme,” writes Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and scholar on fascism and authoritarian leaders.

“Here Conway invokes racist stereotypes already familiar to many in MAGA,” she adds, pointing to remarks Conway made (video below) just hours after President Biden’s announcement Sunday afternoon.

“She had disastrous staff turnover as vice president,” Conway told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “I check it on the daily. Her public schedule, gentlemen, rarely has anything on it or one or two things on it. She does not speak well. She does not work hard, and she should not be the standard bearer for the party.”

Conway was the first woman campaign manager to land a presidential candidate, Donald Trump, in the White House, and later served as Senior Counselor to the President. Her record includes coining the terms “alternative facts,” and the nonexistent “Bowling Green massacre.” Statista looked at presidential turnover from President Ronald Reagan to Trump and found Trump’s record is higher than any president in modern history, including at the cabinet level.

“Kellyanne Conway is parroting the racist stereotypes,” responded Adam Cohen, Vice Chair, Lawyers for Good Government, “[that] Black people are stupid and lazy.”

“Of course, she will vociferously deny it,” he added. “But too late-we already know exactly who Conway is.”

“After all, she spent years promoting Trump.”

Ben-Ghiat on Sunday night also responded to a New York Times headline, “Some Black Voters Say They Wonder if a Black Woman Can Win.” She warned: “It’s starting.”

IFrame Content

George Conway (Kellyanne’s ex-husband) last week created an anti-Trump political action committee, the Anti-Psychopath PAC. He commented on her Fox News remarks late Sunday night: “Not everyone can express themselves as eloquently and with such exquisite turns of phrase as Donald J. Trump.”

Watch Conway’s remarks below or at this link.

===

an 7 24

As President Joe Biden continues to face a wave of calls from within his own party to end his reelection campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris is being seen by some supporters as the most likely successor. And now former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign chief is revealing his strategy for how he aims to pivot.

The Daily Beast reported recently that Trump campaign senior advisor Chris LaCivita is already preparing for the possibility of having to run against Harris instead of Biden given the growing pressure on Biden to step aside. He told the Beast that Biden will still be the focus of the campaign's attacks even if he's no longer the nominee.

"You can’t say you’re cognitively impaired and not able to run for president and then continue to be president,” he said. “If you’re going to step down as a candidate for president because of cognitive reasons, then you have to step down as president.”

The 81 year-old Biden — who is temporarily off the campaign trail after testing positive for Covid-19 — insisted after this week's Republican National Convention that he plans to remain in the race through November. This comes despite both House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) urging Biden to end his reelection bid, and former President Barack Obama even suggesting Biden seriously consider the viability of his candidacy.

Following his underwhelming performance in his first televised debate against Trump last month, Biden has made efforts to convince voters of his vitality and competence. The 46th president of the United States has sat down for high-profile interviews with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos and NBC News' Lester Holt, given boisterous speeches at rallies in battleground states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, addressed the NAACP's national convention in Nevada and answered questions on complex domestic and foreign policy issues at the recent NATO summit in Washington, D.C.

Still., LaCivita — the architect of the "Swift Boat" media offensive against 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry — expressed doubts that Biden could overcome calls for him to resign from the presidency altogether if he ended his reelection campaign.

"That dog don't hunt," he told the Beast.

READ MORE: '[Only viable option': Document calling for Harris to be nominee goes viral among Dem donors

LaCivita suggesting he'll push for Biden to leave the White House entirely echoes what New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie wrote in the wake of the paper's editorial calling on Biden to step down.

"It does not make sense to say, 'Joe Biden is not so enfeebled that he cannot be president but is enfeebled enough that he cannot run for re-election.' There will be calls for him to retire outright," Bouie said in a published conversation with other Times columnists.

On the other hand, LaCivita and Susie Wiles — the Trump campaign's other top official — both said in an interview with the Atlantic that Democrats putting Harris at the top of the ticket would be a blow to their entire operation. Both LaCivita and Wiles admitted their campaign had been specifically built to take down Biden, and that there was no plan to account for a different nominee.

Click here to read the Beast's report in its entirety (subscription required).

READ MORE:['Listen to the American people': First Dem governor publicly urges Biden to get out of race

===

omg

mma 7 24

Right-wing media have spent years attacking Vice President Kamala Harris as fundamentally unqualified for the office she holds

Right-wing media have claimed she is a “DEI hire” and launched sexist attacks

WRITTEN BY JACK WINSTANLEY & PAYTON ARMSTRONG

PUBLISHED 07/11/24

Right-wing media figures have spent years attacking Vice President Kamala Harris with unfounded claims that she is a “DEI hire,” assertions that she is uneducated or sounds intoxicated, and other racist and sexist attacks.

As 2024 campaign coverage zeros in on a hypothetical Harris run, right-wing media are continuing their drumbeat of attacks against the VP

- Since being named President Joe Biden’s running mate during the 2020 presidential election, Harris has frequently been the subject of sexist and racist attacks. Many of these attacks aimed to discredit the legitimacy of Harris’ role, with some right-wing media figures claiming Biden was a puppet for a nascent Harris presidential run. Vanity Fair, [8/13/20; The New York Times, 10/9/20; The Washington Post, 10/7/20]

- Claims that Harris might become the nominee — either as a result of Biden dropping out of the race or dying in office — have percolated around the ongoing discussion of Biden's age.Speculation about a Harris presidency has reached a fever pitch amid the fallout from Biden’s debate performance on June 27 and ongoing concerns about the president’s age. The Wall Street Journal, [11/24/23, 11/17/23, 5/1/23; The Associated Press, 7/5/24]

## Right-wing media have claimed that Harris was a “DEI hire” for vice president or that her selection was “based solely on diversity criteria”

- Appearing on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime, conservative comedian Adam Carolla stated that the “affirmative action hiring of Kamala Harris was a horrible idea.” He doubled down on the claim that Harris is unqualified by adding that “you need the most qualified person, who could be Black or Indian or half of each or a woman, or not identify as either — but you need competence.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [7/8/24]

- Newsmax host Rob Schmitt claimed that Harris’ career was “revived magically by diversity, equity, and inclusion,” after her 2020 presidential primary debate against then-fellow Democratic candidate Tulsi Gabbard. Earlier Schmitt had noted that, despite supposedly “terrible” polling numbers (which he did not provide), Harris has “the advantage of being a Black woman in the Democratic Party.” Newsmax, *Rob Schmitt Tonight*, [7/8/24]

- The New York Post published an op-ed claiming that a hypothetical President Kamala Harris would be “the country’s first DEI president.” The piece, written by Fox Business Network correspondent Charlie Gasparino, claimed that Harris “checked all the boxes” by having a Jamaican father and Indian mother and that Harris had “jump[ed] at the chance to serve as [Biden’s] VP when DEI came calling.” New York Post, [7/6/24]

- The Five co-host Jeanine Pirro: Harris “has proven to America why DEI doesn’t work.” Co-host Greg Gutfeld added: “She’s being overlooked because she didn’t earn it. She was the least popular candidate in the primaries of 2020 — and there were a lot of people involved. So there's a sense that, as what happens with DEI, unfortunately, even if you are qualified, people are skeptical of how you got there.” Fox News, *The Five*, [7/2/24]

- Fox host Brian Kilmeade: “The Democrats made their bed when they picked Kamala Harris. Have to have a woman, has to be a woman of color.” Guest Horace Cooper replied, “If the test for president is, can you cackle? Is the test, can you laugh in the middle of your statement? Can you not be ever serious? She passes with flying colors. Her own party knows that she's incompetent.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [7/2/24]

- In reference to the possibility of Harris replacing Biden on the presidential ticket, Gutfeld argued that “it's very easy to make, say, a DEI hire, but it’s almost impossible to do a DEI fire.” Fox News, *Gutfeld!*, [7/2/24]

- Fox host Jesse Watters claimed Harris is being used “like a DEI prop.” Watters said: “Why does the White House treat Kamala like a DEI prop and dangle her in front of audiences to win over wine moms and African-Americans with windows into her silly personal life? Why would getting to know Kamala better make people more likely to vote for Biden? The American people already know Kamala and they don't like her.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [5/14/24]

- On The Five, Watters said Harris “gets more favorable treatment because of her race and gender.” Fox News, *The Five*, [8/7/23]

- On his show, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk declared that “equity is taking away people's stuff based on some sort of socio-economic group,” and that “Kamala Harris has now become the jive-speaking spokesperson of equity.” Real America’s Voice, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [10/5/22]

- Fox host Laura Ingraham said that Harris “knows nothing except how to play the race card to get ahead,” adding, “Selecting a VP based solely on diversity criteria and not objective merit is not only stupid, it's really dangerous.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [11/18/21]

- Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy called Harris “the affirmative action vice president” after Harris visited a historically Black college. Duffy: “Yeah, she was not dealing with the root cause. She was at a football game, because you know, as the affirmative action vice president who was selected because she was a woman and because she was the right color, she likes to go to these things. She went to her alma mater, Howard University, a historically Black college. This is the kind of stuff she likes to do. Stuff on the border, not so much.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends Weekend*, [9/19/21]

- On Fox & Friends, a guest argued that Harris was put in charge of the border “simply because she has brown skin.” Guest Autry Pruitt: “Vice President Harris' appointment was simply because she has brown skin. President Biden is trying to inoculate himself against attacks. After all of the images have come out, after all the mistreatment of kids at this border, after the surge, he needs someone brown so he can ward off criticism. It's simply that fact.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [4/7/21]

## Right-wing media have launched racist attacks and claimed that Harris “is not even Black”

- In a 2020 article for Newsweek, John Eastman, who would reportedly go on to play a pivotal role in then-President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, resurrected the racist “birther” conspiracy theory to speculate that the Oakland, California-born Harris was not a “natural born citizen” and thus ineligible for office. Newsweek later issued a lengthy editors note for the article, apologizing and acknowledging that it was being “used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia.” Media Matters, [8/13/20; Newsweek, 8/12/20; CNN, 3/6/24]

- Pro-Trump social media figures Diamond and Silk claimed that Harris “is not even Black” while discussing her family heritage. Ineitha Hardaway, known online as “Diamond,” also seemed not to know that India is part of Asia, adding, “Somebody claimed that she was Asian American and then they are saying she's Indian. I don't know what she is.” WMAL, *Mornings on the Mall*, [8/12/20]

- On BlazeTV, Fox host Mark Levin discussed Harris’ ethnicity, commenting that she “is not an African American.” BlazeTV, *LevinTV*, [8/11/20]

- On Fox News, Dinesh D’Souza, who has pushed election conspiracy theories, said Harris shouldn't be considered “African-American” because she “is from the legacy of” a prominent Jamaican slave owner. D’Souza erroneously claimed that the Democratic Party is trying to “eradicate all connections to the slave plantation” where Harris’ family purportedly descends from. Media Matters, [8/11/20, 5/4/22; The Washington Post, 1/17/21; Reuters, 8/25/20]

## Right-wing media figures have fixated on Harris’ past relationships and claimed she “launched her political career in [the] bedroom”

- Former Fox News primetime host Tucker Carlson repeatedly made misogynistic comments about Harris’ relationships, including with Willie Brown and Montel Williams. In 2021, Carlson declared that Harris “is the ex-girlfriend of Montel Williams and will be described that way forever after on this show,” and the following year, Carlson invoked Harris’ relationship with Williams to distract from his own about-face on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Mediaite, [11/15/21; Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/5/21; Media Matters, 3/4/22]

- Appearing on Tucker Carlson Tonight, right-wing pundit Jesse Kelly called Harris “Willie Brown's bratwurst bun.” Kelly added that Harris would “do anything to get ahead.” Fox News, *Tucker Carlson Tonight*, [7/15/21]

- In 2019 when Harris was running for president, right-wing media spread a sexist smear against Harris that she had “sle[pt] [her] way to the top with Willie Brown.” Conservative actor James Woods was a major promoter of a hashtag on then-Twitter that attacked Harris as “#HorizontalHarris.” Media Matters, [1/31/19; Reuters, 10/13/20; Twitter/X, 7/31/19]

- The Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft accused Harris of launching “her political career in [the] bedroom,” with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. The Gateway Pundit, [1/27/19]

- Owen Shroyer, a host for Alex Jones' Infowars, went on a rant filled with sexist accusations sexualizing Harris, saying she “basically sucked and ducked her way to the top.” Media Matters, [1/31/19]

- Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh spread the Willie Brown smear. Limbaugh elevated the smear to his nationally syndicated show in 2020 when, in response to a comment by Brown that “Harris is a tested and proven campaigner who will work her backside off to get Biden elected,” Limbaugh went on a sexist rant, declaring: “If anybody knows her backside, it’s Willie Brown.” Media Matters, [8/10/20]

## Right-wing media have lobbed sexist attacks against Harris, with many fixating on her voice or laugh

- Fox host Brian Kilmeade attacked Harris for cursing: “Now she has gone over the top” and is “starting to act like one of the guys.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [5/14/24]

- Right-wing streamer Steven Crowder called Harris a “generically ethnic whore.” YouTube, *Louder with Crowder*, [10/27/22]

- Right-wing pundit Benny Johnson condemned Harris for not having children: “It is the most important job you will ever have. Kamala Harris never had the selflessness.” Youtube, *The Benny Show*, [7/26/22]

- Fox's Jeanine Pirro called Harris a “bimbo” over her trip to Poland. Pirro complained that Biden had sent Harris “to Poland in the midst of this invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and she's asked what is the president going to do about refugees from Ukraine? This bimbo literally starts cackling and laughing. It is a sad commentary on the highest ranking woman in the United States.” WABC, *The Judge Jeanine Tunnel To Towers Foundation Show*, [3/20/22]

- Fox radio host Jimmy Failla said that Harris’ laugh could drive Russian President Vladimir Putin to suicide. On Fox News’ Outnumbered, Failla said: “If Putin spends 10 minutes around Kamala and her awkward laugh, the only person he's going to want to kill is himself.” Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [2/18/22]

- In a segment on Harris, Newsmax host Greg Kelly said that “she just wants to flaunt it and I think she wants to flirt.” Kelly continued, “She just kind of likes to walk around like she's some sort of beauty queen.” Newsmax, *Greg Kelly Reports*, [10/20/20]

- On Fox, guest Harmeet Dhillon said that Harris has a “bossy-ing mannerism” and a “grating voice.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [10/13/20]

- During and immediately after the first 2020 vice presidential debate, right-wing media figures called Harris “vile,” “bitchy,” “smug,” and a “clown.” The Blaze's Allie Beth Stuckey wrote also that Harris “look[s] like she’s an angry teenager” and right-wing influencer Ian Miles Cheong said that Harris came off like an “absolute b*tch." Media Matters, [10/7/20]

- Right-wing media reacted to Harris’ announcement as Biden’s running mate in 2020 by using sexist rhetoric to try to denounce her as a candidate. Right-wing pundits claimed that she was “abrasive,” too “ambitious,” and that her “hard-edged personal style, and facial sneer will make her like 10,000 fingernails on 1,000 loud chalkboards, amplified by a boom microphone so strong it could be heard for a hundred miles.” Media Matters, [8/9/20]

## Right-wing media have claimed Harris is uneducated and attacked her as “a PSA for your brain on drugs”

- Fox anchor Julie Banderas claimed that her young daughters “speak more eloquently” than Harris and said, “I’m sorry, just being a minority doesn’t make you fit for president.”
- Outnumbered co-host and former Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany claimed that Harris’ speech “does not quite ring like commander-in-chief.” Outnumbered co-host Emily Compagno added, apparently addressing the press, “So the question of how did we get here? Well, it's because all of you. And the fact that now the understudy is Kamala Harris, who they point out was not qualified to be a vice president, that President Biden selected her simply because of her color and her gender, that's the mess that they created.” Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [7/2/24]

- On Fox News' Hannity, Newt Gingrich called Harris a “shallow, uneducated and uneducable person.”He added that, “other than her weird laugh, there's no really significant part to her.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [6/12/24]

- Greg Gutfeld stated on The Five that Harris sounds like “a woman at the bar on her fourth skinny margarita.” Fox News, *The Five*, [3/16/23]

- Fox contributor Raymond Arroyo stated that Harris “is a PSA for your brain on drugs.” Arroyo also called Harris “a living Wordle. You know those Wordle things where you just grasp at five words and try to make a solution?” Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [10/11/22]

- In an appearance on Jesse Watters Primetime, Gingrich stated that Harris “doesn't know anything, she doesn't know how to learn anything, she's inarticulate, and she's not sure what the big words mean anyway.” Gingrich also insinuated that Harris was only hired for her race and gender, stating, “She fits all the various, you know, personality requirements. She's a woman. She's a woman of color. She comes from our biggest state.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [6/21/22]

- Fox News contributor and New York Post columnist Miranda Devine stated on Hannity that Harris “looks like an extra out of an old Cheech and Chong movie.” Devine added that when appearing in public, Harris looks like “some sort of a stoner waving her arms around and speaking in complete nonsense.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [3/22/22]

- Right-wing media accounts on social media, including The Federalist’s Mollie Hemmingway and The Daily Wire, circulated a deceptively-edited soundbite from an interview with Harris to accuse her of having “kindergarten-level insight.” Harris had been asked to explain the war in Ukraine in “layman’s terms”; Harris’ response was then selectively edited to include only her description of the relative sizes of the countries, which right-wing media called “child-like.” Media Matters, [3/1/22]

- Greg Kelly baselessly speculated that Harris “has a drug or alcohol problem” and claimed that she “needs help.” Conservative radio host Mark Simone added that he had supposedly “been hearing this for months that she is at happy hour quite a bit and happy hour starts about noon,” and that Harris “has an IQ maybe 85/90 to begin with.” Newsmax, *Greg Kelly Reports*, [11/10/21]

### Tomi Lahren previously pushed the same sexist smear about Kamala Harris on Fox Nation

08/01/19

### Fox News ramps up attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris

07/03/24 1:23 PM EDT

### Tucker Carlson defends racist smear of Kamala Harris

07/02/19

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she steps up after debate fail, she was very good so now target b/c may be top of target; fox trad goes after women esp POC effective leaders

Fox News figures have recently compared Vice President Kamala Harris to teenage children, said that her words do not sound like those of a commander-in-chief, and dismissed Harris as a “a DEI hire.” The network has ramped up its attacks on Harris — including with commentary focused on her race and gender — since President Joe Biden's debate performance on June 27.

- Fox anchor Julie Banderas claimed that her young daughters “speak more eloquently” than Harris and said, “I’m sorry, just being a minority does not make you fit for president.” Outnumbered co-host and former Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany claimed that Harris’ speech “does not quite ring like commander-in-chief.” Outnumbered co-host Emily Compagno added, apparently addressing the press, “So the question of how did we get here — well, it's because all of you. And the fact that now the understudy is Kamala Harris, who they point out was not qualified to be a vice president, that President Biden selected her simply because of her color and her gender, that's the mess that they created.” Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [7/2/24]

- Fox host Lawrence Jones on Harris’ BET Awards cameo: “I get code-switching, but you can't just change all the way up like that.” Jones continued, “I don't know what the White House wants to gain by going on BET, as if that is going to get us to the polls for Joe Biden.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [7/1/24]

- The Five co-host Jeanine Pirro: Harris “has proven to America why DEI doesn’t work.” Co-host Greg Gutfeld added: “She’s being overlooked because she didn’t earn it. She was the least popular candidate in the primaries of 2020 — and there were a lot of people involved. So there's a sense that, as what happens with DEI, unfortunately, even if you are qualified, people are skeptical of how you got there.” Fox News, *The Five*, [7/2/24]

- Fox host Brian Kilmeade: “The Democrats made their bed when they picked Kamala Harris. Have to have a woman, has to be a woman of color.” Guest Horace Cooper replied, “If the test for president is, can you cackle? Is the test, can you laugh in the middle of your statement? Can you not be ever serious? She passes with flying colors. Her own party knows that she's incompetent.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [7/2/24]

- Fox contributor Kellyanne Conway: “Joe Biden was out in front saying — he sounded like a sophomore frat boy at the end of a keg party on a Saturday night: ‘I need a woman, I need a woman, I need a woman,’ and we got stuck with Kamala Harris.” Conway continued, “So, and he said, ‘I want to choose a Black woman.’ That’s fine, except he said the quiet part out loud, he told us how he got her. And as you’re saying, she just hasn't performed capably in the job.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [7/2/24]

- In reference to Harris possibly replacing Joe Biden, Gutfeld argued that “it's very easy to make, say, a DEI hire, but almost impossible to do a DEI fire.” [Fox News, Gutf

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06/12/24

hannity: NEWT GINGRICH (GUEST): Kamala's hopeless because she's Kamala. I mean, anybody who watches her knows that the idea of her being president makes Biden look good, which is really hard nowadays.

So, you have to start with the idea that she's imprinted on the country permanently that she is a really shallow, uneducated and uneducable person, and that other than her weird laugh, there's no really significant part to her Now, I do think her efforts in the last month or two on abortion, running around the country on women's rights, she's actually stabilized and sounded semi-serious, but I think basically she's a huge drag on the ticket.

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On social media, news outlets give more attention to Kamala Harris using an expletive than Trump’s corrupt promise to oil executives](https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/social-media-news-outlets-give-more-attention-kamala-harris-using-expletive-trumps)

05/21/24

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despite once claiming that “Twitter needs to become by far the most accurate source of information about the world,” CEO Elon Musk is using the site to amplify dangerous conspiracy theories and right-wing talking points. In just the last few days, Musk has peddled conspiracy theories about a mass shooting in Allen, Texas, fearmongered about migrants, and seemingly suggested that white people are being discriminated against.

After a gunman in Allen, Texas, killed eight people and injured seven last weekend, Musk followed the lead of right-wing media, undermining reporting that the shooter expressed neo-Nazi beliefs. In the days after the shooting, Musk tweeted, “this is either the weirdest story ever or a very bad psyop” and seemingly expressed doubt about reported connections to far-right ideology. (He did so without providing any evidence and disregarding multiple reports from research centers and outlets that confirmed the shooter had expressed neo-Nazi beliefs online.)

Musk has a history of flirting with bad actors and dangerous content on Twitter; he has previously amplified and seemingly given credence to conspiracy theories, boosted a QAnon influencer at least two dozen times, and catered to right-wing accounts that promote bigotry, extremism, and misinformation. And in recent days, he has done more of the same.

Here are a few examples of Musk amplifying and engaging with right-wing users and misinformation within the last few days.

Musk has engaged with right-wing figures to fearmonger and push anti-immigrant rhetoric

This week, Musk has engaged with multiple right-wing media figures about immigration, seemingly agreeing with Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk that “America is being invaded” by migrants and responding to anti-immigrant Fox News reporter Bill Melugin’s fearmongering tweets with “Wow.” After Collin Rugg, co-founder of conservative site Trending Politics, wrote that the end of Title 42 will lead to “an invasion along the southern border,” Musk responded, “This is next-level!” Musk also ostensibly agreed with right-wing account End Wokeness after it bashed the Biden administration for its immigration and other policies, responding with “!!”

Musk is engaging with dangerous rhetoric that is evocative of the white nationalist “great replacement” conspiracy theory. Anti-immigrant “invasion” language has previously contributed to real-life incidents of violence, including the 2019 El Paso, Texas, shooting where 22 people were killed by a shooter who expressed similar anti-immigrant beliefs. Additionally, the Biden administration has already announced plans to further secure the southern border after Title 42 ends, and blaming the current White House for a broken immigration system is disingenuous, as the GOP has and continues to obstruct immigration reform policies.

Musk has engaged — and seemingly agreed — with far-right users who claim that white people are being discriminated against

After Jordan Neely was held in a chokehold on a New York City subway and later died, some on the far right have “pushed unsubstantiated, misleading, and false information to suggest that the media is only covering the story because Neely was Black” and the other rider was white — and Musk was quick to latch on to this anti-white bias narrative.

Musk interacted with a series of posts from QAnon influencer KanekoaTheGreat, who seemingly argued that the media are biased against white people, and thus are at least partly responsible for the “division and polarization of society.” (The posts included graphs created by two different employees at the right-wing Manhattan Institute, one of whom is a self-proclaimed “wokeness studies scholar.”)Musk engaged with these posts by replying with responses like “interesting,” “wow,” and “I wonder why.” Quote-tweeting another user who previously wrote an essay attacking the “Woke Left,” Musk also claimed that the media are engaging in “massive public manipulation” for apparently using the terms “racist,” “racists,” and “racism” more frequently within the last decade than before.

Popular Information debunked Musk’s suggestion that the media display an anti-white bias: “Since the 1990s, research has shown that the media propagates negative stereotypes of Black people as criminals.” Also, not only do the media struggle to fairly cover race, but the Center for American Progress found that Black Americans are actually overrepresented in the media as perpetrators of crime.

Additionally, Musk and his right-wing allies have shared these graphs about the media’s coverage without the necessary sociopolitical context of the last decade; police officers have killed scores of Black Americans, white supremacist violence is becoming an increasing concern, and former President Donald Trump “upped the ante on race.”

Musk has responded to bad-faith actors' suggestions for Twitter features and encouraged his followers to subscribe to their accounts

One doesn’t need to scroll long to see an example of Musk engaging with a right-wing user. In just the last few days, Musk has laughed at anti-trans content, instructed his followers to subscribe to at least two different right-wing users, and mocked Vice President Kamala Harris.

After anti-LGBTQ bigot and Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dilion begged for people to subscribe to The Babylon Bee’s Twitter account, snarkily prefacing the ask with, “We know you have important things to spend your money on, like reparations and other people's student loans,” Musk responded, “I subscribed!”
Wannabe governor of California Michael Shellenberger wrote a Twitter thread about “woke” culture war issues and pleaded for subscribers, to which Musk responded, “I recommend subscribing.” Musk is also evidently one of his subscribers.
Musk responded to requests for new Twitter features from conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec and QAnon influencer Ron Watkins, who may have posted as “Q,” with “coming” and “coming soon.”
Responding to right-wing personality ALX, Musk posted a laughing emoji on an anti-trans tweet and made fun of a decision to name Harris “AI Czar.”

Musk is working to court back advertisers that have previously fled his platform, but they should take caution, considering the sort of content their ads might run alongside. As BBC reporter Shayan Sardarizadeh wrote on Twitter competitor Bluesky: “These days, if you want to find the latest conspiracy theories trending on Twitter, the easiest thing to do is to check the tweets Elon Musk replies to, you’ll find most of them.”

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