Fox News edited Trump’s rambling answers and false claims in barbershop interview, full video shows
By: Brian Stelter and Liam Reilly, CNN
The Fox News Channel’s recent segment about Donald Trump’s “surprise” visit to a barbershop in the Bronx resembled a campaign ad for the former president’s reelection.
Trump was seen taking questions and making small talk with Black and Hispanic barbershop customers and workers, some of whom were wearing “Make Barbers Great Again” shirts. The visit was part of “Fox & Friends” co-host Lawrence Jones’ ongoing barbershop interview series.
But the version of the visit shown on television was, to borrow a hairstyle metaphor, a crop cut. Fox edited out many of Trump’s rambling comments and false claims. Participants had to repeatedly follow up when Trump meandered away from the original point of their questions.
CNN reviewed a more complete video of the barbershop visit that was uploaded to Instagram on the day of Trump’s appearance in the Bronx and compared it to the segments that were shown on “Fox & Friends” on Monday.
Fox’s edits omitted numerous Trump tangents and exaggerations – a striking decision given Trump’s recent attacks on CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes” for editing an interview with his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, earlier this month.
Trump’s complaints about “60 Minutes” center on an edit of Harris’ comment about the relationship between Israel and the United States. He has charged that CBS manipulated the Harris interview to “make her look better” and demanded that CBS release the unedited transcript of the interview, which CBS has declined to do.
Ironically, however, Fox edited several of Trump’s recent appearances on the network, including his visit to the barbershop. And some of the edits certainly make him look better.
The televised broadcast omitted Trump’s comments about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. He told the barbershop customers that “they just dumped 50,000 people — 32,000 migrants from another country — in Springfield, Ohio. They don’t know what to do.” The actual number of migrants in Springfield is far lower, according to the city’s own data. The broadcast also left out Trump’s gross exaggerations about crime in Aurora, Colorado.
One of the most telling parts of the dialogue began when an audience member asked Trump about finding a way to eliminate federal taxes in the future. On Fox, Trump was shown immediately answering affirmatively: “There is a way.”
But that response from Trump actually came more than seven minutes later, after Trump (and Jones) brought up other topics, including inheritances, the Keystone Pipeline, Ronald Reagan, Russia, and transgender sports players. Trump had to be nudged back on track several times by the unnamed audience member, who kept circling back, apologetically, and said “I wasn’t able to finish my question.” After he repeated his tax inquiry yet again, Trump said “there is a way.”
But on Fox, it was stitched together as one seamless back-and-forth.
Fox also cut some of the former president’s insults, as when he mocked the Wall Street Journal, a sister property of Fox. “Don’t listen” to the “Wall Street jerks or Wall Street Journal, cause they don’t get it,” Trump told the barbershop audience.
In another unplayed portion of the visit, Trump praised Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban and called him a “very respected guy.” That exchange underscored Trump’s tendency to favor autocratic leaders, but Fox decided not to share it with viewers.
A Fox News spokeswoman said every one of Jones’ barbershop segments are pretaped and edited. The Bronx edition ran for nearly an hour and was cut for time and clarity, the network said.
Trump’s recent appearance on the Fox News program “MediaBuzz” was also pretaped and edited. One obvious edit occurred when Trump began to repeat his false claims about the 2020 election – a sensitive subject for Fox since the network is still dealing with defamation lawsuits relating to its coverage in 2020.
“They came down to protest a rigged election,” Trump said, referring to January 6. Then there was a sudden cut, suggesting that some of Trump’s distortions were removed.
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Sadly, this won't make any difference to Trump supporters, they abandoned their integrity years ago to support the most unfit vile lying piece of human garbage for President and because they have no shame and are so hypocritical, this type of thing only matters to them when done by Democrats. I really wish that weren't the case, I wish that facts mattered to Trump supporters, but they have proven over and over again that they just don't give a shit about any of Trump's flaws, he's their guy and they're sticking with him no matter what. Like he said, he could shoot someone on 5th Ave and not lose any voters. In a rational world that would be insane, psychotic even, but that's just the political environment we live in now.
No, it won't make any difference to trump cultists. His sociopathic/psychopathic behavior is what's appealing to many of them.
you know, I had wondered what all the noise from maga supremacists was when they were bleating in unison about the CBS 60 minutes transcripts. duh, it was them projecting about something they were already guilty of, as usual ...
That's standard right wing propaganda methodology, always accuse their opposition of engaging in whatever nefarious activity they're doing or planning to do. It's how they operate. They do it all the time.
... and when caught, "they do it too or they did it first", are the predictable responses.
Fox and Trump, a match made in hell.
It is certainly one ugly baby
gee, I wonder who tastes rupert's food at family gatherings now?
So, why isn't Trump demanding that Fox have its broadcast license revoked?
it's the only major network that employs pundits that will do exactly what he tells them to do ...
He said he was going to demand that Fox stop running negative ads about him.
I would toss FOX out of the WH press corp and revoke their press credentials on federal property on day 1.
They are the American equivalent of RT.
Did they at least try to fix that disaster on his head?
That's the Weave. They can try to fix it, but the thing they can't possibly fix is the disaster in his head.
his hair hat has noticeably changed since he almost caught one in the head last july ... ... meh, maybe a new stylist ...