While Democrats celebrated with abandon Thursday over the elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s presidential nominee, viewers of Fox News received a prolonged disquisition on the many dire shortcomings of the candidate and her party.

Even before Harris took the stage at the United Center, the channel’s star prime-time commentators Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity and their guests, headlined by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, belittled the vice president as unqualified, unserious and a threat to the American way.

The messaging came as no surprise to regular viewers of the most influential conservative news outlet, which delivered long blocks of commentary throughout the Democratic National Convention, seldom showing the people or performances onstage in Chicago.

Viewers were told that Harris and running mate Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor, would put capitalism and American values in imminent peril, opening the nation to invading hordes of immigrants and leftist economic policy that would turn the U.S. into another Venezuela.

Gingrich took a swipe at Walz, suggesting he wasn’t what he appeared to be and “was never actually a coach.”

The barb had been tossed out earlier by former President Trump via his Truth Social platform, with the Republican noting that Walz had been an assistant coach, not a head coach, for the football team at Mankato West High School. (Such parsing probably wouldn’t please about a dozen members of Walz’s team who reunited on the convention stage to support Walz on Wednesday night and sang his praises in multiple interviews.)

The Fox crew lit into the Democrats not just with spoken words, but also with on-screen headlines and disquieting video. Consider the chyrons that leaped onto the screen as Watters, then Hannity and Gingrich, chatted: “Dems Ditch Policy, Go All In on Emotion”; “When Will Kamala Do an Interview?”; “Kamala Has Never Cared About the Border”; “Vetting the Extreme Harris-Walz Agenda”; and “DNC Repackages Kamala as the ‘Female Obama.’”

Hannity, Fox’s longtime prime-time personality, assured viewers that the Democratic claims of promoting a more joyful public square amounted to a ruse. As Hannity spoke, the message ”Feel the Rage” flashed on the screen, while Fox also rolled video of protesters burning American flags and immigrants wading into a river to cross into the U.S.

“I mean, there’s joy in people smiling and playing music,” fumed Hannity, a close friend and ally of Trump, “but a lot of rage on that stage. Not a lot about how they’re going to fix America’s problems: inflation, the border, energy, America’s place in the world, law and order. I don’t hear a lot about that at all.”

Hannity’s hour also featured a segment with a Fox reporter covering pro-Palestinian protests in the streets outside the United Center.

Chicago police and most observers noted that the widespread unrest that had been predicted by some did not occur, and the planned protests failed to draw the tens of thousands of demonstrators that organizers had hoped for. The vast majority of those who came to Chicago marched peacefully.

Fox’s reporter noted that the marchers had been following the prescribed parade route. The group assembled around him was quiet, standing and holding placards, including some that criticized Harris.

“They say, if people are still dying in Gaza, there won’t be any business as usual,” the reporter said. “So they’re not going to shy away from things like vandalism, disruption, escalation, as they call it.” Despite that prediction, the streets remained mostly quiet.

Back in the studio, Gingrich said that a recent speech by Harris on economics “was so far to the left of [Sen.] Bernie Sanders that Gorbachev and Russia would [have] thought it was a radical speech.”

Hannity and Gingrich agreed that the Democrat’s proposed tax on some unrealized capital gains — on real estate or money invested in the stock market — could lead to everyday Americans losing their savings or even their homes.

The problem with the assertions was that they badly mischaracterized the Harris plan, which calls for increased taxes only on those with incomes of more than $400,000 a year. The tax on unrealized capital gains is designed to hit a much higher tax bracket, according to an analysis by the New York Times.

The salvo foreshadowed what’s expected to become a pattern in the final weeks of the presidential race — a series of charges and counter charges about which party’s tax plan will favor average Americans.

The Fox commentators’ beatdown of the Democratic tax plan raised an incongruity: Much of the network’s commentary in recent days had been about how Harris and Walz had not put forward specific proposals. While Hannity continued to stoke that claim, he also battered the quite specific tax plan. And he portrayed the Democrats as extreme leftists.

“Every once in a while, the mask comes off and you realize you’re dealing with someone who’s crazy,” Hannity said, apparently referring to Harris and her tax plan. “And, of course, with Walz, you have the most radical governor in the country, far to the left of Bernie Sanders, and you have with Harris, a San Francisco radical.”

Appearing before Hannity and Harris’ speech, Watters leaned into some of the culture war issues Republicans have employed against Democrats.

After a segue in which he and Fox host Martha MacCallum discussed how hard they had worked out that day and how strong Hannity was in the gym, Watters showed video of CNN commentator Dana Bash praising Walz and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, Harris’ husband, for a new brand of masculinity that allows for sensitivity and strength.

Watters used that video as an intro to asking former Democratic House member Harold Ford Jr., a regular Fox contributor, how he felt about the party’s framing of masculinity: “Harold, how embarrassed are you as a Democrat that you guys are now pandering to the low-testosterone men?”

Ford ignored the question and discussed what he thought Harris should do in her speech to show Americans that she is presidential and represents the mainstream of the nation’s politics. Smiling, Watters persisted: “Harold, how embarrassed are you? Your party’s a bunch of low-T guys?”

MacCallum, joining the segment, painted Democrats as too young, gullible or otherwise unaware to understand the shortcomings of the Democrats. “That’s where I think you get those older voters,” McCallum said, “and maybe some white male voters who are not so easily persuaded by feelings and [being] emotional, joyful.”

Watters, who began his Fox career as a smiling and acerbic sidekick to Bill O’Reilly, got in a shot at one other Democrat — California Gov. Gavin Newsom. He suggested that Newsom had not been given a speaking role (outside of announcing the votes of the state delegation) out of Harris’ spite. “He’s being punished,” Watters said. “You can’t be overly ambitious if you’re a man.”

The tone of Fox’s coverage shifted markedly once Harris took the stage and in the follow-up panel discussion.

The cable outlet stuck with the entire 37-minute address and then provided relatively balanced analysis afterward. Fox prime-time anchor Bret Baier and panelists, including Ford, said Harris’ performance was strong.

“It was a forceful speech delivered very crisply, very professionally, with emphasis. There was no stumbling, fumbling, or any of that,” said Brit Hume, a Fox News veteran.

Dana Perino, White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, said Harris’ tough talk on defense and support of Israel were the strongest parts of her address.

But Perino also said Harris had not yet faced tough questions. And she pushed back on Harris’ charge that Trump would invoke Project 2025, a proposal to radically transform the federal government whose authors included many Trump allies and former aides, but which the former president has disavowed.

“Abandon Biden” is now “Abandon Harris.”

The pro-Palestinian group opposing the Democratic Party announced on Friday that its members were “now mobilizing under the banner of ‘Abandon Harris.’”

“While we will keep the registered name of Abandon Biden, our mission is now laser-focused on exposing and opposing Kamala Harris and her complicity in genocide,” the statement from the group explained. “We call on all people of conscience to join us in holding the Democratic Party accountable for the bloodshed in Gaza.”

HARRIS TRIES TO THREAD ISRAEL, GAZA NEEDLE WITH ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS A CONSTANT PRESENCE AT DNC

“The DNC’s recent actions have only confirmed what we’ve been saying all along: the Democratic Party has no interest in ending the genocide in Gaza,” the group continued. “They are not mere bystanders; they are active participants in this brutal, unforgivable violence.”

Abandon Harris is part of a larger movement on the left opposing the Democratic Party due to its continued support of Israel in the Jewish state’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

Anti-Israel demonstrators expressed their discontent with Harris’ campaign throughout this week’s Democratic National Convention with marches, protests, and demonstrations against speakers.

CHICAGO DNC: ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS ERUPT AS KAMALA HARRIS SPEAKS ON FINAL NIGHT OF CONVENTION

Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris takes the stage on Day 4 of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. (REUTERS/Brendan Mcdermid)

The Democratic presidential nominee attempted to extend an olive branch to the anti-Israel protesters during her speech at the convention, telling the crowd that President Biden’s administration is “working around the clock because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a cease-fire deal done.”

“And let me be clear – I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself, and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself, because the people of Israel must never again face the horror that a terrorist organization called Hamas caused on Oct. 7.”

At the same time, Harris said, “what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating,” referring to the war casualties of innocent Palestinian people.

Professor Hassan Abdel Salam, founder of Abandon Biden, speaks to a few dozen fellow pro Palestinian activists gathering outside of the Biden campaign rally at the A. Phillip Randolph Vocational Technical Center in Detroit, Michigan. (Adam J. Dewey/Anadolu via Getty Images)

In July, Harris met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reiterate the administration’s support for Israel, while also expressing her “serious concern about the dire humanitarian situation there.” There was an apparent cease-fire deal also discussed at the time. 

Fox News Digital’s Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.

During the nine years Donald Trump has been running for president, his political superpower has been his feral talent for seizing media attention and knocking opponents off-stride with insults, falsehoods and demagoguery.

Until this year, it usually worked.

But over the last five weeks, as Kamala Harris launched her late-starting presidential campaign, Trump has been the one who appeared off-balance, seemingly unprepared to run against anyone younger than President Biden.

So as Democrats gathered in Chicago, Trump went back to his old playbook to regroup. He abandoned the already-frayed tradition of taking a break during the other party’s convention — what’s one more norm to break? — and set out on a cross-country tour aiming to cut the surging Harris down to size.

But Trump’s attempt to grab back the spotlight — his most frenetic week of campaigning in months — didn’t work.

Harris’ convention ratings were higher than his. Even worse, Harris’ rally crowds were bigger than his. Worst of all, his old nemesis Barack Obama made fun of him over it.

Trump was seething even before the week started, when Time magazine put a formal portrait of Harris on its cover.

“I’m a better-looking person than Kamala,” he complained.

He was still seething when the week ended, when Martha MacCallum of Fox News had the temerity to note that Harris was “having some success” at attracting young and minority voters.

“No, she’s not having success,” Trump snapped. “I’m having success.”

For those who missed it — because, after all, it didn’t get much media coverage — here’s a brief diary of Donald Trump’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Convention Week:/

Monday: York, Pa. — Trump speaks to an audience of about 150 at a small factory and questions Harris’ origins: “I wonder if they knew where she comes from,” he muses. That evening, he watches Biden’s speech at the convention. “[I] was amazed at his ANGER at being humiliated by the Democrats,” he writes in a social media post. “I was happy to have played a part in his demise.”

Tuesday: Howell, Mich. — Trump falsely accuses Harris and other Democrats of using violence to push Biden out of office. “That was a coup,” he claims. “It was a vicious, violent overthrow of a president of the United States.” (“I think he has a problem,” Biden responds.)

That evening, Trump watches former President Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as they ridicule his obsession with crowd size. “Very nasty,” Trump says.

Wednesday: Asheboro, N.C. — At a rally, Trump charges that the FBI is faking crime statistics and the Labor Department is faking job statistics. (The numbers are often fallible, but there is no evidence that they are faked.)

And he returns to talking about the Obamas’ speeches. He acts out a mock dialogue with his campaign aides, who want him to cut back on insulting his opponents. “Do I still have to stick to policy?” he whines in a little-boy voice.

That evening, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a former high school football coach, accepts the Democrats’ nomination for vice president and is celebrated by former players. “A total lightweight,” Trump scoffs. “They call him ‘Coach.’ He’s a semi-coach.”

Thursday: Sierra Vista, Ariz. — Trump starts the day on “Fox & Friends” talking about one of his favorite subjects: Crime in California, which he blames on Harris’ tenure as district attorney in San Francisco more than a decade ago.

“Everything she touched turned bad,” he said. “You can barely go into California anymore. … It’s got nothing. Drugs all over the place. You go into Los Angeles, you can’t walk down the streets.”

That evening, he watches Harris accept the presidential nomination and generates a string of furious social media posts.

“WORST SPEECH EVER,” he types.

“IS SHE TALKING ABOUT ME?” (She was.)

“SAY GOODBYE TO THE U.S.A.!”

If the Democratic convention won the race for the ratings, hate-watcher Trump may have been a small part of the problem.

Friday: Glendale, Ariz. — The Democratic convention is over, and Trump finally gets some good news: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspends his independent presidential campaign and endorses him. “A great guy,” Trump says, although Kennedy once denounced him as “a terrible human being.” It isn’t clear whether Kennedy’s endorsement will move many voters into Trump’s camp.

Trump was all over the map, both geographically and figuratively. He didn’t focus on a single, core message to appeal to swing voters who aren’t sure they really want a second Trump term.

Still, Trump can claim one solid accomplishment for the week.

He appears to have settled on a new nickname for Harris: “Comrade Kamala.”

Nicknames are a tell for Trump — a brand for his main line of attack. He struggled for months to find one for Harris, with misfires from “Laffin’ Kamala” to the inscrutable “Kamabla.”

“Comrade Kamala,” of course, reflects his argument than Harris is not just too liberal for most voters, but — in his absurdly inaccurate charge — “a radical left Marxist.”

Any real Marxist will tell you Harris doesn’t come close. Real Marxists believe the government should own major industries; Harris does not. Harris doesn’t even support Bernie Sanders-style “single-payer” health insurance, as she briefly did during her 2019 campaign.

But when Trump was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, almost any charge of communist leanings was enough to doom a politician. Back then, it was called McCarthyism, after the Wisconsin Republican senator who wielded groundless accusations as recklessly as Trump.

Will the same technique work half a century later? That may depend on whether Harris continues tempering her policies to make her liberal agenda sound like simple common sense, as she did in her acceptance speech. The test will unroll over the next 10 weeks.

But as the week ended, she appeared to have found her stride — and Trump was the one struggling to keep up.