AlterNet Harris destroyed Fox’s 'completely fictional' image of Trump in one exchange: analysis - Carl Gibson October 17, 2024

 AlterNet 

Harris destroyed Fox’s 'completely fictional' image of Trump in one exchange: analysis

Vice President Kamala Harris speaking to Fox News' Bret Baier on October 16, 2024 (Image: Screengrab via Associated Press / YouTube)

Carl Gibson   October 17, 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris' recent interview with Fox News host Bret Baier was likely her toughest to date, but one exchange has emerged that could be what helps her break through to the network's stalwart conservative audience.

In his latest column, the New Republic's Greg Sargent wrote that one moment in the interview stood out for him in particular that may be something the Harris campaign can exploit up until Election Day. That moment came after Baier played a clip of Trump speaking at a friendly Fox News town hall event (which Fox did not disclose was packed full of Trump supporters) in which he downplayed his "enemy within" remarks from earlier this week.

"They were saying I was like, threatening, I wasn't threatening anybody. They're the ones doing the threatening," Trump said. He then complained about "phony investigations" and "weaponization of government" to prosecute him.

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Harris sternly responded to the clip by telling Baier: "That clip was not what he has been saying about the 'enemy within' that he has repeated when he's speaking about the American people. That's not what you just showed." Harris later tweeted proof of selective editing that omitted Trump doubling down on his "enemy within" comments, including his belief that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California) was deserving of the label.

"Here's the bottom line: He has repeated it many times. And you and I both know that. And you and I both know that he has talked about turning the American military on the American people. He has talked about going after people who are engaged in peaceful protest. He has talked about locking people up because they disagree with him," Harris said. "This is a democracy. And in a democracy, the president of the United States — in the United States of America — should be willing to be able to handle criticism without saying he'd lock people up for doing it. And this is what is at stake."

Sargent argued that in that one exchange, Harris was able to dismantle the "completely fictional" portrayal of Trump that Fox News has spent years crafting. According to Sargent, that segment, which Harris has since tweeted twice on her @KamalaHQ account, is a major counter to the pro-Trump programming that's been dominant on Fox's airwaves for the better part of a decade.

"MAGA’s biggest deception of all may be its portrayal of Trump as enjoying public support that is not just authentically, broadly, deeply majoritarian, but also is only constrained from realizing its full explosive potential by interference from corrupt institutions like the media and the Deep State," Sargent wrote. "The reality is the opposite: Without the massive propaganda support system he benefits from — and the gravitational pull it exerts on mainstream news outlets — Trump, who has never enjoyed majority support in this country, probably could not long politically survive."

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"What Harris revealed here is that, at the most basic level of all, Trump is campaigning on an explicit vow to treat the opposition and its voters as sub-American. He has threatened persecution of the “vermin” opposition, vowed to use federal disaster relief money to extort blue states into doing his bidding, floated sending the military into Democratic-run cities, and, now, made it all even more explicit with his latest 'enemy within' rants," he continued.

"Trump is essentially running on an open promise to serially violate his oath of office to carry out a kind of scorched earth campaign against blue America. Baier knows all this is toxic among swing voters," he added. "And so the picture of Trump he presented was one in which the only victim of persecution is Trump himself."