In the Fox Den

Yesterday, there were two events on Fox with the presidential candidates.  Trump had a women’s “Town Hall” and VP Kamala Harris sat down for an interview with Brett Baier.  The specifics of what was said is one thing, but there were other issues at play that I found far more interesting.

With Trump, I put “Town Hall” in quotes because it really wasn’t.  Those are when you open the door to everyone, and whoever wants to come in and ask a question can.  It turns out – not shockingly – that Fox worked with the local MAGOP party group to pack the audience with loyal Trump supporters only.  So, those were the only people asking questions, and the only people reacting with cheers, laughter and applause.  Fox, also, didn’t disclose this – it took outside reporters to track down that the local MAGOP group announced their work online.  Nor did Fox disclose that they had edited out some of the loyalist questions, comments and “We want Trump” chanting.  And edit the answers. 

(Fun Fact: just 11 days ago, Trump got all Trumpy-upset at 60 Minutes and slammed them for editing their interview with Kamala Harris.  Though that was largely edited for time, as always happens, as opposed to editing out having a fully-partisan audience and sanitizing the candidate.)

What Trump said is secondary.  Trump on Fox is only going to get an audience of people who are voting for Trump already.  So, you know he’s going to go there and deliver his greatest hits.  The good news is that he didn’t stop after five questions and dance to his music playlist for 39 minutes.  The bad news is that he did call himself “The Father of IVF.”  A subject he said he only learned about just eight months ago after talking to, as he put it, a “fantastically attractive” senator for “two minutes.”  What a senator’s physical appearance has to do with learning about IVF and Trump’s previous ignorance is a matter between his “weaving” mind and the ether.  (Perhaps he focuses better when an attractive woman is talking to him – even if only over the phone.)  Not to mention the wildly poor judgement of making the female senator’s physical appearance a matter be wanted to single out at a women’s “Town Hall.”  But learning about IVF just eight months ago and in only a two-minute phone call…and then calling yourself the “Father of IVF really does a major disservice to Trump’s concept of fatherhood.  Which should give pause to the five Trump children.

By contrast, there was Kamala Harris agreeing to have an in-depth interview on Fox, media mothership of the MAGOP.  Her conversation with Brett Baier was at times blunt and confrontational.  But it was open and pointed, and she pushed back whenever Baier tried to talk over her and when he played a different video (which made Trump look good-ish), rather than the video of everything Trump had said which included the fascist part that VP Harris had specifically been addressing.

I have no expectation that she convinced a single Fox viewer who watched.  In fact, I suspect that they hated her answers, because they’ve been told to hate her, and likely thought she did terrible.  Never mind that afterwards, Fox’s own commentator Dana Perino stated that Harris “was fairly effective at that,” when going after Trump.  Far more to the point is that unlike with Trump’s “Town Hall,” it’s reasonable that curious Democrats and Independents tuned in to see how it all turned out.  And far more likely saw clips of the most notable exchanges.

And even more to the point, voters saw – or simply just read about – that Kamala Harris went into the center of opposition territory and faced questions for a full-blown interview.  And that alone showed her courage – the clips and news stories showed how well she handled herself, despite Trump calling her very stupid and mentally defective.  And despite MAGOPs previously crying out how she hadn’t done any interviews because she couldn’t.  Meanwhile, beyond even the Fox interview, Harris has been wallpapering the media with interviews – Howard Stern, The View, Stephen Colbert’s show, the Call Her Daddy podcast and Charlamagne tha God’s podcast.  With a reporter interview with far-right Joe Rogan in the works.

And even further to the point, Kamala Harris going to the heart of MAGOP media for an interview – if that’s all you know – contrasts with the awareness that Trump hasn’t gone on MSNBC for an interview and never will.  Indeed, on that day, he had a comfortable visit on friendly Fox.  And it contrasts with Trump not going on 60 Minutes for an interview, refusing to have a second debate with Vice President Harris, and canceling his scheduled interview on CNBC just two days before.

The courage of one and activity of one candidate, as opposed to the ongoing cowardice of the 78-year-old convicted felon and adjudicated rapist with early dementia, who three days before stopped taking questions at another “Town Hall” after just five of them and instead played music, swayed and dance for 39 minutes.