Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner insisted on Wednesday that she’s never heard Donald Trump peddle an antisemitic trope about Jewish Americans who vote Democrat—just moments after the former president tripled down on an antisemtic trope about Jewish Americans who vote Democrat.
Faulkner’s assertion came at the tail end of a heated panel discussion in which liberal Fox News pundit Marie Harf called out Trump for once again attacking Jewish Democrats, prompting right-wing commentator T.W. Shannon to loudly object. Lecturing Harf while taking Shannon’s side, Faulkner told the pundit that “we have to get our facts right” and insisted Trump had done no such thing.
Just ahead of the back-and-forth on The Faulkner Focus, the network carried Trump’s comments from the tarmac after his plane landed in Georgia on Wednesday. Towards the end of his rambling remarks, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee took aim at President Joe Biden for his rising criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid increasing calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. Inevitably, the ex-president also blasted Jewish Democrats in the process.
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“Frankly, he is a low-IQ individual. He has no idea where he is and who he is supporting. He doesn’t know if he is supporting the Palestinians,” Trump bellowed. “He knows one thing he is not supporting Israel. He has abandoned Israel. Any Jewish person who votes for a Democrat or Biden should have their head examined!”
These latest remarks come just weeks after Trump said “any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion” and Israel. Even though the comments drew immediate outrage from Jewish leaders, who accused Trump of trafficking in “depraved” antisemitic “dual loyalty” screeds, the ex-president repeated his attack this week.
“Any Jewish person that votes for Biden does not love Israel, and frankly should be spoken to,” he declared on MAGA radio host Wayne Allyn Root’s show.
After Trump wrapped up his impromptu presser on Wednesday, Faulkner turned to Harf and Shannon to discuss the former president’s remarks. The conversation grew tense, however, once Harf criticized Trump for his “very angry” vitriol. “He just said if Jews vote for Democrats they should have their heads examined,” she noted, causing Shannon to let out a long, deep sigh.
Shannon complained that Harf was “intellectually disingenuous” for describing Trump as angry before heaping praise on the former president. Faulkner, meanwhile, attempted to fact-check Harf by repeating Trump’s tarmac comments in full.
“Full quote in here. You were talking about what the president had said about Jewish Americans. He said Biden has totally lost Israel on that issue. And abandoned Israel,” the Fox anchor stated. “Then he went on to say if you are Jewish in this country and you vote for him, you need your head examined. That was the full context of that. So Marie, the way you made it sound, he just willy-nilly said it. What he’s saying is that, look, this is a problem.”
Faulkner further claimed that Trump was merely pointing out that Biden has been inundated with “anti-Israel protests” and that the president’s “handling of the war against Hamas” is costing him in the polls. Harf said this was because of Biden’s continued support for Israel, resulting in Faulkner arguing with the Democratic strategist over the president’s “vacillating” on the Gaza war.
Eventually, though, Harf pivoted back to her original concern: Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric about American Jews. “Donald Trump has questioned the loyalty, he has repeatedly questioned the loyalty of Jewish Americans. He has said antisemitic and offensive things about how Jewish Americans vote,” she noted.
“Oh my gosh! When?” Shannon protested. “Name one time that Donald Trump has been antisemitic! That is a lie!”
Trump has done it “over and over again,” Harf said, adding: “He just did it five minutes ago. Literally!”
Faulkner, meanwhile, jumped in to end the segment and scold Harf. “Antisemitic, anti-Israel, anti-all of it. All of it is what we are covering here. And we have to get our facts right. I didn’t hear what you’re talking about, Maria,” the Fox News host huffed. “But what I did hear him do is call Biden out for not having a clear policy or successful policy with Israel.”
Despite being lauded as one of the faces of the conservative cable giant’s “hard news” division (and snapping at guests calling her “far-right”), Faulkner’s pro-Trump leanings have been well on display in recent years. Besides repeatedly toeing the MAGA line, she has called Hillary Clinton “so evil” and claimed Biden “hates at least half” of the United States. She once broke literal fake news during an interview with Trump.
While the Fox star regularly sides with right-wing guests over liberals, Faulkner’s on-air relationship with Harf has long been fraught. She infamously blew up at the progressive commentator during a December 2020 broadcast of the roundtable show Outnumbered when Harf noted that the network had largely ignored the surging COVID-19 deaths that month, calling it “offensive.” Harf, who had been a regular Outnumbered panelist on the show, soon saw herself benched from the show following the kerfuffle.
