Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner lashed out Thursday afternoon at Fox contributor Marie Harf after the liberal pundit accurately pointed out that the network had largely ignored Wednesday’s record-setting coronavirus death toll. In response, Faulkner claimed Harf’s mere observation was “offensive” and that she “can’t see my heart.”
While coronavirus deaths, hospitalizations, and cases surge to new levels and the United States netted more than 3,000 deaths on Wednesday, Fox News has largely focused its COVID-19 coverage on slamming Democratic politicians for perceived hypocrisy over lockdowns, insisting once again that coronavirus restrictions are unnecessary.
Prior to Thursday’s broadcast of afternoon talk show Outnumbered, Fox News had only devoted 20 seconds of coverage to Wednesday’s death toll—but spent more than an hour discussing Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell’s five-year-old interactions with an alleged Chinese spy.
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Towards the end of the noon hour, during a panel discussion on California’s outdoor dining restriction, Harf decided to call out Fox’s lack of coverage of the raging pandemic’s newest death toll.
“Yeah, I mean, we are 43 minutes into the show and we haven’t mentioned the 3,000 Americans that died yesterday, more than on 9/11 and every day for a while we are going to have that many American deaths,” the longtime Democratic strategist said.
After saying that “regulations should be driven by science” and Congress should be doing more to help struggling small businesses, Harf added that “these regulations cannot lose sight of the tragedy that is unfolding every day in this country.”
Faulkner, meanwhile, was incensed over Harf’s commentary and took direct aim at her.
“Can I just quickly say because I feel like, Marie, you took a shot there and maybe you felt like it was necessary but if you don’t think that our hearts are big enough to mourn the people we have lost during this pandemic, what exactly are you trying to say?” Faulkner seethed. “That is offensive and it is not true. It is not true!”
Acknowledging that the “numbers are ballooning,” the Fox anchor said we can’t “just destroy everything in the process of trying to save it” before resuming the scolding of her colleague.
“You’re right, it didn’t just happen nine days ago,” she declared. “It’s been months now, the scientists are teaching us new stuff, let’s live by that but please, keep your judgment someplace where you know you can fact-check it. Because you can’t see my heart and trust me when I tell you it hurts all of us to mourn those Americans and people around the world.”
Harf calmly responded: “Then let’s talk about it, let’s talk about that more than talking about Democratic hypocrisy.”
“We are talking about it! We are,” Faulkner interjected.
“We aren’t enough. In my opinion, and I get to give my opinion—” the progressive commentator retorted, only for Faulkner to cut her off.
After the host got the last word over Harf, complaining that public-health experts said face masks weren’t necessary for public use back in early March, she concluded by saying, “You can’t judge everybody by the same brush.”
“I will just wrap up by saying, to Harris Faulkner: amen,” co-host Dagen McDowell chimed in at the end of the segment.
