Decoding Fox News

Plastic straws! Fake accents! Non-existent bans on fracking! A local Fox News affiliate debunked its parent company! Nebraska Walzes for Trump haven’t even met Tim Walz! Fox News hosts pretended Kamala Harris has plummeted in the polls even when she hadn’t. Jesse Watters bragged about sounding like Russian propaganda. Vladimir Putin would be so Proud. Steve Doocy repeats a hateful myth about American Muslims and Pete Hegseth was shocked when an Israeli American said that Israelis want a return of every hostage, and end to the conflict and the end of Benjamin Netanyahu’s failed strategy. I threw in a silly impression at the very end.

Fox News was desperate for some kind of scandal to help boost Trump’s presidential campaign. Fox tried to boost RFK Jr.’s endorsement of Trump, Mark Zuckerberg wrote a letter to Jim Jordan, Kamala Harris had an interview with her running mate, Joe Biden somehow controlled Trump’s DOJ, and finally Kamala Harris stranded astronauts in space. Absolutely nothing stuck but that wasn’t going to stop anyone at Fox from insisting all of these stories were life and death important.

A crazy old man named Donald J. Trump called into the last night of Fox News’ coverage of the DNC. When the first show hung up on him he called in to the next show - the worst comedy show on television. Jessica Tarlov broke down his meltdown. Jesse Watters made a racist statement about crime. Sean Hannity waited for a riot that never happened. Brit Hume referred to women who suffered sexual assault and serious pregnancy complications as “abortion speakers” Multiple Fox News hosts whined about how the Dems have treated Biden. Nancy Pelosi proved she’s a boss on PBS.

Kamala Harris is a copycat of Trump but also a communist. Will Cain tried to pretend Trump came up with the Child Tax Credit. Greg Gutfeld exaggerated Tim Walz’s DUI arrest from 1996. There was a Casserole Controversy! Trump advisor and Project 2025 author made up a bunch of nonsense about Black and Latino Americans. Tammy Bruce encouraged Joe Biden to turn into Dark Brandon at the DNC and Stuart Varney went rogue - Democrats are good for the stock market.

The folks at Fox News are still freaking out that Kamala Harris is starting to beat Trump in some polls. Last week was “Let’s Swift Boat Tim Walz” week as multiple Fox News hosts accused the Minnesota Governor of stolen valor even though he served in the National Guard for 24 years. Brian Kilmeade invented Chinese conspiracy theories. Jesse Watters tried to force his Black co-host to wear a “White Dudes for Harris” cap. Laura Ingraham attacked Tim Walz for being an assistant coach. Judge Jeanine Pirro made up crime stats and a Fox guest went rogue.

Fox News tried to create a smokescreen of deception to hide the rise of Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for president. Fox was outraged by an anti-Christian opening ceremony that wasn’t about Christianity, and a trans athlete who wasn’t trans. Fox also claimed a crowd cheered Trump at a convention for Black journalists when in reality they laughed and jeered at him. Judge Jeanine Pirro claimed white dudes are only supporting Kamala Harris out of white guilty and Dana Perino claimed Democrats are trying to “superglue” Trump to Project 2025.

A fun frolic of Fox News meltdowns! What a glorious week to cover Fox. Fox started the week by playing the music the network normally uses for natural disasters under a news story that Biden was dropping out of the presidential race. Multiple Fox News hosts lost their ever-loving minds over Democrats reaction to Kamala Harris’ decision to run for president. Everyone on Fox seemed to forget the role of a vice president. Jessica Tarlov shared her excitement of millions of Democrats about Kamala Harris. Kellyanne Conway said that Trump never called Hillary Clinton names. Greg Gutfeld made a number of assumption’s about the young man who tried to kill Trump. Brian Kilmeade didn’t even pay attention to his own show.

Jessica Tarlov breaks down Trump’s rambling mess of a speech from the RNC, Laura Ingraham praises Hulk Hogan the compares Donald J. Trump to Ronald Reagan. Rep. Cory Mills and Eric Trump claimed THEY tried to kill Donald J. Trump. Who is they? Greg Gutfeld is outraged that anyone would call Trump Hitler than he called Joe Biden Hitler. Fox News featured a woman who has appeared on the network for the past four years as an undecided voter. I RANT A LOT IN THIS ONE. PBS NewsHour does not hold back when they called Republicans out for their lies.

Fox News spent a lot of time trashing Biden even including segments during the July 4th celebrations. The network also is starting to pivot to trashing Vice President Kamala Harris. She’s the mastermind of a vast conspiracy to cover up Biden’s declining mental state. Hunter Biden has the nuclear codes. Bernie Sanders and The Squad are going to rip the country in half. The Democrats will stack the Supreme Court! Trump definitely won’t abuse his power and a preview of what life might look like under Project 2025.

Fox News was surprisingly subdued after Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance. The day after the debates they interviewed white folks in diners where they blamed the First Lady Jill Biden for everything. An RNC spokesperson claimed the DNC has been hiding Biden’s cognitive decline for years. Fox News hosts glossed over Trump’s many lies and Rachel Campos-Duffy went off the deep end in many ways. There was also signs among the MAGA faithful that they are worried Trump won’t win the 2024 election.

This is the second half of Juliet Jeske's comprehensive fact check of Trump’s statements during the presidential debate on CNN on 6/27/24.

This is the audio version of a comprehensive fact check of 53 lies Donald J. Trump told during the first presidential debate. Because there were so many I had to break it into two parts. This is Part One. Part Two will drop shortly. The written version, complete with hyperlinks to all sources, can be found at the Substack channel for Decoding Fox News. It is free for anyone to read.