Last week Fox News started off with a festival of non-stop Biden bashing as Fox hosts and guests alike lambasted the president and called for him to drop out of the presidential race or resign. Fox producers didn’t even mix things up with other stories they simply found new ways to trash Biden.
On Saturday former President Donald J. Trump narrowly survived what the secret service and law enforcement are calling an assassination attempt during an outdoor rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania.
A 20-year-old gunman scaled the roof of a nearby building and got eight shots off towards the former president before he was killed by snipers.
One spectator was killed, and two others were critically injured. The motive of the shooter is still unknown.
Fox News added an extra hour to “Fox & Friends Sunday,” along with special Sunday evening episodes of its primetime line up with most of the programs foregoing commercial breaks or only taking one near the end of each episode. Nearly 100% of the airtime in each broadcast was dedicated to the shooting.
The network spent most of its time deifying Trump as an invincible supernatural being while hosts openly called the event a miracle and evoked Jesus Christ.
Of course, it is a national tragedy that any political candidate would be targeted for violence regardless of party affiliation. A person with a gun should not decide the political fate of an entire nation.
Anyone exclusively watching Fox News last week might not know that an economic indicator showed a decline in inflation or that a Black man was killed by security guards in an incident that is eerily like the murder of George Floyd.
Shows I covered last week:
Fox & Friends
The Five
Hannity
Fox & Friends Sunday - 5 hours (Extra hour added to cover assassination attempt)
The Ingraham Angle - Sunday (Extra hour added to cover assassination attempt)
Jesse Watters Primetime - Sunday (Extra hour added to cover assassination attempt)
Hannity - Sunday (Extra hour added to cover assassination attempt)
Jesse Watters Had Some Odd Thoughts Abut Biden and the Democratic Party
On Thursday on “The Five,” Jesse Watters went on a strange rant about President Joe Biden.
“So, Joe should just go out tonight and say, I'm tired. And the latest ABC news poll. What do you guys talking about? Reagan was down. JFK was down. These people came back and won. I've come back and won. The red wave never happened. I would just throw that right in their face. And then I would stop criticizing Democrats because that's what the Democrats are getting mad at.
Joe is criticizing them, and he needs to make this about Trump again. He said, I beat him once. I'm going to beat him again. And we're running to restore democracy. And you guys want to rip away millions of people who voted for me. You can't just change the rules in the middle of an election and just say, oh, you know what? My candidate's probably going to lose. The polls are bad. Let's just rip them off the ticket.
When is that ever happened before? It's never happened before in the history of this country. When just because a candidate is down in the polls right before the convention and he's gone, they're not ripping him off this ticket because of his mental state, the ripping them off because they think he's going to lose. The Democrats can't lose one election. It's one election, Richard. And Trump's only going to get in for four more years. And then you guys will get back with Gavin. Everybody knows it's like losing an election. Like you're just going to just throw this democracy up in the air and just shoot it with a cannon. That's the craziest thing I've ever seen.”
Candidates for each party used to be selected during party conventions. Watters’ words ring hallow as Donald J. Trump, many Republicans and most hosts on Fox News refused to accept that Trump lost the presidential election in 2020.
Fox News hosts didn’t concede that Biden won the last presidential election until after the network paid Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million in the largest defamation settlement in history.
Project 2025 - Fox News vs. the PBS News Hour
On Thursday both Fox News and the PBS News Hour addressed The Heritage Foundation’s plan to reshape the U.S. government, “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise Project 2025.”
On “Fox & Friends,” Brian Kilmeade insisted Donald J. Trump had no connection to the blueprint for the next conservative presidency.
“For every elected Democrat in Washington, DC. Joe Biden is an existential threat to their jobs,” said Steve Doocy.
He was interrupted by his co-host Brian Kilmeade.
“And they go, and they want to make it that Trump is the threat. And that's they keep saying, we got to stop Donald Trump from making us a dictatorship. And this ‘Project 2025,’ is their new mantra. Please don't buy it. It's a 900 page think tank, book. That's very interesting. A lot of stuff is good. It's well-researched, but it has nothing to do with Trump, even though he had some staffers on there,” said Kilmeade.
“It was Heritage Foundation, right and it’s very well respected,” said Ainsley Earhardt
“And they did a great job. Kevin Roberts does a great job and he could defend it. It doesn't mean it's Trump who wrote it. And, you know, you don't have to reach if you don't like Donald Trump. Look at the platform for the RNC and have fun with that, he wrote it,” said Kilmeade.
Later that evening on “The PBS News Hour,” White House correspondent, Laura Barrón-López, had a different take on ‘Project 2025.’
“That's right. former President Donald Trump is essentially saying that he knows nothing about ‘Project 2025,’ that he doesn't know who's behind it. But, Geoff, multiple authors of ‘Project 2025’ worked in Donald Trump's White House. and they're expected to potentially work in a second Donald Trump White House, if he were to win reelection.
This specifically ‘Project 2025,’ the blueprint about, about giving the presidency more power in a Republican, White House, as well as gutting federal agencies, restricting abortion across the board. Those are things that Biden's campaign really believes that is going to help President Biden strike that contrast. They see that it's, that voters are actually starting to take stock of it, that voters are paying more attention to this blueprint, that they do see it as being connected to former President Donald Trump.
And so, ultimately, you're going to see more from President Biden's campaign, playing ads about this as well as they think it's going to be the way to keep voters on President Biden's side, even in the aftermath of this debate.”
In my own research I found that over 75% of the authors and editors of “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise Project 2025,” are former Trump staffers, campaign employees, advisors or cabinet members. Over half of the 277 contributors to ‘Project 2025,” also worked for the Trump administration in some capacity.
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Trump is Almost Jesus Now
On Sunday during the five-hour marathon of “Fox & Friends Sunday,” Rachel Campos Duffy claimed Donald J. Trump was protected by a divine force field.
“A lot of people saying that that wisp of wind,” said Camos-Duffy.
“God breathed,” said her co-host, Pete Hegseth.
“It's the Holy Spirit. there, isn't it,” said Campos-Duffy.
Later on, the program Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) also saw divine intervention Trump’s narrow escape from death.
“Is that easy of a shot? And so this is by miracle. This is by the divine intervention. This is by God's protection. And Rachel’s correct. Every time you see so many people placing hands on him, so many people who are praying over him. We know Ephesians 6 when it talks about the armor of God. And his response let me tell you, President Trump was not fearful. He was pissed off that someone just tried to take his life. He is standing there willing to take that bullet for us as the American people. And we have to recall the fact that when he stood up, he did not stand in fear. He stood to chant, ‘fight, fight, fight,’ because he's fighting for America. He's fighting for the Republic. He's fighting for every one of us who are sitting here right now talking about this incident,” said Mills.
After several similar segments Campos-Duffy repeated her claims that some supernatural power protected Trump.
“Yeah. You know, you're so right. It's just a millimeter. Probably of a difference. he's an animated speaker, so he moves around. He was referencing something on, you know, he had a big screen up talking about immigration and the terrible numbers that have changed, in the in the wrong direction since he was elected. And I think it was that kind of movement. But there was something else, that if you're a believer and there are a lot of people who pray for this man, I've actually talked to him about it. We talked about it in our interview. I talked to him off camera, once about it, and he has told me that he is always, welcome the prayers of so many. And how many people come up to him and pray over him? I don't think any President Pete and Will has had more photos taken of him having people laying hands over him and praying, and you have to wonder if those prayers, I personally believe that that is what protected him. That moment and history would absolutely, been changed in that moment. Let's not forget that there is somebody in that crowd who died, that there are two people who are critically injured and that everybody in that crowd went in there with hope for the future.”
Tom Homan Calls Trump a Warrior President
On Sunday, on “Fox & Friends,” Tom Homan, the former acting director of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) referred to Donald J. Trump as a ‘warrior president.”
“So, a lot of stuff is going on. So I don't blame the Secret Service a bit that about the men and women on the ground who saved the president's life. And let's talk about the president. When the shots were heard. He did exactly as he was trained and got down on that podium because he's been trained there, security precautions around that podium that will protect him. And I'll say this when they finally did get him up. You see him move a Secret Service agent aside to let the American people know he's okay, and they can continue to fight. This proves once again the same thing I've been saying for four years in this network. He is a warrior. He is a man's man. He is not a coward.
He's a brave person that wants to come back and make this country great. He wants to, and he loves law enforcement. And for him to stand up after that issue and put himself in harm's way, which probably wasn't the best safety, move he made. But he wanted the American people to know he's good. He is going to continue to fight. That man is that is just a warrior. And people need to understand. I think last night proved it. It's a great point.”
Homan developed and defended the family separation program that the Trump administration initiated at the southern border. Adults entering the U.S. illegally were detained and criminally charged while any accompanying children under the age of 18 were handed over to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which shipped them miles away from their parents and scattered them among 100 Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) shelters and other care arrangements across the country.
The U.S. government failed to create a system to reunite families. ICE had no organization or plan for reunification for the families.
Many parents were deported while their children were still in the U.S. while phone numbers and other information that could have been used to locate the parents was lost or missing.
More than 5,000 children were separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border between 2017 and 2021.
President Biden ended the program. A month after he was inaugurated the president established a task force on family reunification.
According to reporting by New York Magazine, in an article from February 2024, out of more than 5,000 children separated from their parents by the Trump administration, as many as 2,000 still haven’t been reunited.
Homan is a frequent guest on Fox News. He’s made statements for the past several months that Trump intends to rehire him to work with ICE if he’s elected to a second term.
A Trump Voter Blames Democrats for the Attack on Trump
On Sunday, Gino DiFabio, a former Republican candidate for Mahoning County Commissioner, appeared on “Fox & Friends,” to share what he witnessed about the shooting at the Trump rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania.
“I'll tell you exactly what happened. But before I do that, I want to say one thing. You know, for everybody's mentioned it this morning. And, for the last seven years, my first time on Fox and Friends was about seven years ago. That morning, Trump saw me on, on on your show. I was on a stage. I'd met with the guy, this this guy is doing more for the American people than anybody knows. I want to demand as an American citizen, do we have a July 13th committee to investigate the instigating of, they want to say that Trump instigated January 6th. I want to say they instigated the assassination attempt of our president. It shouldn't it should not be allowed to stand. Everybody knows the names Pelosi, AOC and the rest of them. Because what I have to live for, what I saw yesterday for the rest of my life, it's their fault. It's their rhetoric. Now. I'm sorry I had to say that because I'm tired and I'm an angry American.”
Trump regularly uses dehumanizing language to describe undocumented immigrants, members of the media, his Democratic opponents and Republican critics.
Axios compiled a list of some of the worst examples of Trump condoning and encouraging violence.
July 2017: During a speech to law enforcement officers in Long Island, New York, Trump seemingly encouraged police officers to be rough with people they were arresting, per ABC News. "Please don't be too nice," he told the audience.
August 2017: In the aftermath of the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump failed to unequivocally condemn the violence and said "many sides" were to blame, failing to distinguish between those who participated in the "Unite the Right" rally and those who showed up in opposition to it.
October 2018: While speaking at a Montana campaign rally, Trump publicly praisedMontana's then-Rep. Greg Gianforte (R) — the state's current governor — for previously assaulting a reporter. "Any guy that can do a body slam, he is my type!" Trump said.
October 2019: A New York Times report outlined various strategies Trump had allegedly deliberated to keep migrants away from the U.S. southern border, including a water-filled trench with snakes or alligators and shooting migrants in the legs to slow them down.
May 2020: Trump used violent rhetoric when referring to protests in Minneapolis in the wake of George Floyd’s killing, tweeting, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." The phrase has a racist history going back to police brutality against Black Americans in the 1960s, per the New York Times.
June 2020: Trump threatened to use the U.S. military to quell Black Lives Matter protests across the country. "If a city or state refuses totake the actions necessary todefend the life and property oftheir residents, then I willdeploy the United Statesmilitary and quickly solve theproblem for them," Trump said.
August 2020: Trump expressed interest in sending the National Guard to Portland, Oregon, to confront protesters, per Vox. "We could fix Portland in, I would say, 45 minutes," Trump said.
(Axios “The times Trump has advocated for violence,” by Ivana Saric, May 2, 2022)
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Judge Jeanine Pirro Says a Number of Crazy Things.
On Tuesday on “The Five,” while discussing President Biden’s mental acuity Judge Jeanie Pirro seemed to think that West Germany still existed.
“You've got to believe the white House that we know is not honest with us or West Germany. That said, we did it to accommodate you guys and Blinken came,” said Pirro.
West Germany unified with East Germany in 1990 a little over a year before the fall of the Soviet Union.
On Thursday, also on “The Five,” Pirro said the country was being run by a crack addict.
“And so, and I want you to think about the next five months because who's running the country? A crack addict, a former crack addict, sex addict and a make-believe doctor are running the country, and that's not a good place to be,” said Pirro.
On the Sunday special edition of “Hannity,” Pirro implied that Vice President Harris had a drinking problem.
“So if they put her at the top of the ticket, aside from the fact that the woman can't put a sentence together, he can't put two sentences together. You can't understand the two sentences she puts together,” said Pirro.
“But Judge what’s her excuse? He (Biden) has an excuse. What’s hers?” said Hannity.
“I don't know, I have an idea, but I'm not going to say it in public. I think she likes to have a good time. Okay,” Pirro said with a laugh.
Stories Fox News Ignored
Every week I compare the hours I’ve watched on Fox News to five hours of the PBS NewsHour. Fox News often ignores major stories that don’t align with its agenda. The following list are stories PBS covered that Fox News ignored.
Updates in the Israel-Hamas War
At least 25 were killed after an Israeli airstrike hit a school that had been turned into a shelter in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Israel ordered the evacuation of Gaza City as it prepares for another military strike on the area. Ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel are ongoing.
The U.S. is considering abandoning efforts to reinstall a pier that has been used to help get humanitarian aid into Gaza. The project has been plagued by rough seas which have led to maintenance problems.
Updates in the Ukraine War
Russian missiles leveled a wing of a children’s hospital in Kyiv killing 42 and injuring nearly 200. Russia has denied responsibility for the attack, insisting it doesn’t attack civilian targets in Ukraine despite abundant evidence to the contrary, including AP reporting.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a lavish state dinner in Moscow. The relationship between India and Russia remains strong as Indian purchases of Russian oil have dramatically increased since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine should have as many as 60 American made F-16 fighter jets later this summer as the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium and Norway have all committed to donating planes to the Ukraine war effort.
Bloomberg Philanthropies donated a $1 billion gift to Johns Hopkins University to make medical school free for a majority of students, while also increasing financial aid for students at its schools of nursing, public health, and other graduate schools.
PBS produced a segment about the lingering health effects many Maui residents still grapple with after the devastating wildfire that caused widespread damage on the small Hawaiian island last year.
After the last election in France no party won a majority of seats in the newly elected National Assembly. Lawmakers are due to elect the lower-house National Assembly's president, equivalent to a speaker, who organizes the chamber's agenda and runs debates.
A Russian court has ordered the arrest in absentia of Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Navalnaya lives outside of Russia but she would be immediately taken into custody if she returned to her home country.
The CPI (Consumer Price Index) had its first monthly decline since May 2020 giving some hope that the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates.
A fire was put out in Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral in Rouen in the Normandy region of France. The construction of Rouen cathedral dates from the 12th century. It was built and rebuilt over a period of 800 years. It was a favorite subject of French impressionist Claude Monet in the 19th century.
The House of Representatives rejected and an “inherent contempt” resolution against Attorney General Merrick B. Garland over his refusal to release audio recordings of a special counsel interview with President Joe Biden. The House already has a certified transcript of the interview. Special counsel Hur has testified that the transcript is accurate.
AT&T disclosed that it had a major security breach that affect 109 million customer accounts. The compromised data includes detailed records of calls and texts, providing a comprehensive log of customer communications during this period. The breach did not involve the content of communications or highly sensitive personal information, such as social security numbers.
The first victim from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre has been identified using DNA from remains found in a mass grave. In 1921 a white mob killed over 300 Black people over the span of two days in a racially motivated attack of the community then known as Black Wall Street. C.L. Daniel, was a World War I veteran who was passing through the area when he was killed. His descents have been notified about his remains.
On June 30th D'Vontaye Mitchell, a Black man, was killed by security guards after being held down at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Milwaukee. His death has many similarities with the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. At the time of his death Mitchell was experiencing a mental health episode. The security guards have been fired and the investigation into Mitchell’s death is ongoing.
Actress Shelley Duvall died at the age of 75 due to long-term complications from diabetes. She is best known for her role Stanley Kubrick's “The Shining.” She also appeared in several Robert Altman films.
Fitness guru Richard Simmons died at his Hollywood Hills home the day after his 76th birthday. Simmons built a fitness empire founding gyms, producing workout videos and diet plans. He was known for his eccentric personality and humor.
Actress Shannen Doherty died at the age of 53 after battling breast cancer for nearly a decade. She was best known for her roles on “Beverly Hills 90201,” and “Charmed.” She began her career while still a child appearing on “Little House on the Prairie,” the Wilford Brimley family drama “Our House.” She also had a starring role in the cult classic film, “Heathers.”
Gail Wilensky, Former CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) Administrator, died at 81. Wilensky worked for more than 30 years at Project HOPE, a global health and humanitarian organization. She also had a senior White House appointment during the last year of the George H.W. Bush presidency.
By the Numbers
These graphs include the footage from both Fox News and PBS NewsHour from Sunday 7/14/24.
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