Politics
The talk was taxes, testosterone and rage when Fox News commentators covered the DNC
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.
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The House has officially shipped a colossal bipartisan housing package to President Donald Trump, and lawmakers are hoping that, at the very least, he doesn’t veto it.
Trump was supposed to sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act last week, but his last-minute decision to ghost the signing ceremony with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., put into question whether the bill was dead.
His refusal to sign the bill, which passed with overwhelmingly bipartisan support in both chambers, was to leverage the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, which doesn’t currently have the votes to succeed in the Senate.
WARREN TELLS TRUMP TO ‘SIGN THE DAMN BILL’ AS BIPARTISAN HOUSING PACKAGE REMAINS STALLED IN WASHINGTON
Trump has refused to sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. (Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump appears to be in no hurry to sign the bill, despite Republicans who are hungry for a win in the affordability fight ahead of the midterm elections.
“It’s so unimportant … compared to the SAVE America Act,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “I think the SAVE America Act is exactly what it says. It’s saving America from crooked elections.”
“Here’s what I would like to sign, much more than a bill that — big deal, it’s a yawn,” he continued. “Some people say it’s wonderful. To me, compared to the SAVE America Act, just about everything is a big yawn.”
GOP INFIGHTING OVER TRUMP’S VOTER ID BILL ERUPTS AS TOP SENATOR CALLS STRATEGY ‘FANTASY’
It’s legislation that is loaded with nearly 60 provisions from both sides of the aisle in both chambers that’s designed to make it easier for homes to be built and for younger Americans to buy their first home. It also includes a ban on hedge funds buying up housing stock that Trump pushed Congress to include during the State of the Union earlier this year.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., one of the architects behind the bill in the upper chamber alongside Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., charged that Congress handed the bill to Trump “on a silver platter.”
“When you ask me what happens next, if he cared about the American people, he’d have already signed the damned thing, and we’d be underway,” Warren said on WCVB’s “On the Record” on Sunday.
But Trump doesn’t have to put his signature on the bill for it to become law.
IRATE REPUBLICANS ACCUSE TRUMP OF HANDING DEMOCRATS A WIN AFTER BLOWING UP HOUSING PACKAGE
The Senate advanced a massive, Trump-backed housing package geared toward lowering the costs of homes and supercharging the housing supply. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., pitched it as legislation to prevent America from becoming a “nation of renters.” (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Protect Borrowers; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The Constitution grants presidents the ability to veto a bill within 10 days of it being transferred over to the White House. In that scenario, Congress could override a veto of the housing package.
It’s happened before under the Trump administration. In early 2021, Congress overrode Trump’s veto of the annual National Defense Authorization Act — a massive Pentagon funding authorization package that some House Republicans are trying to use as a vehicle to pass the SAVE America Act.
But during that 10-day period, if Trump doesn’t sign the bill, it would automatically become law. That’s unless Congress completely adjourns, in which case a “pocket veto” could happen. The Senate is currently in recess and the House is scheduled to leave town by week’s end, but neither count as a full adjournment.
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Johnson, who spent the last few days meeting with Trump at the White House about the housing bill and the SAVE America Act, said: “I hope he does sign it.”
“If he doesn’t, it’s still law,” Johnson said. “We’ll still celebrate it, but he’s trying to make a point, and I think he’s making it very effectively. And the fact that you all ask me every three steps down the hallway illustrates that he has achieved the desired objective, and that is to make SAVE America the number one thing, because if we don’t get that right, everybody’s concerned about what happens next.”
Britain’s culture minister may challenge Paramount Skydance’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery — presenting a potential speed-bump to David Ellison’s plan to wrap up his $111-billion deal by September.
Earlier this month, Paramount secured the U.S. Justice Department’s blessing to buy the Warner assets, which include CNN, HBO, Cartoon Network, Animal Planet and the Warner Bros. film and TV studios in Burbank.
Paramount also must win the approval of British and European regulators, who are known for drilling deeply into media matters because of their influence on society.
Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority took a preliminary step this month by opening an investigation into Ellison’s proposed merger.
On Tuesday, Lisa Nandy, Britain’s Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, notified Parliament that she was inclined to intervene in the blockbuster deal.
In a written statement, Nandy cited her ability to weigh in on “public interest grounds,” due to concerns about maintaining a competitive media market in Britain.
“The UK’s move to intervene in the Paramount–WBD deal confirms what we’ve been saying for months. The real regulatory risk was never in the US — it’s in Europe,” Forrester VP Research Director Mike Proulx said Tuesday in a statement.
While Nandy cautioned she has not made “a final decision on intervention at this stage,” she has invited Paramount and Warner Bros. to respond to her concerns by July 6.
June 2026 photo of Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Lisa Nandy arriving at Downing Street for the weekly Government cabinet meeting in London.
(Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images)
Paramount did not offer immediate comment.
The company owns CBS News, children’s channel Nickelodeon and Channel 5, one of the largest over-the-air television broadcasters in the United Kingdom.
Warner Bros. Discovery owns CNN, Cartoon Network and TNT Sports, which broadcasts the Olympics, Champions League and Premier League soccer matches.
“I am conscious that the proposed acquisition is global in nature,” Nandy wrote in her statement. “In reaching this decision, my focus has been, and will remain, on the UK public interest and the range of services available to UK audiences, including Channel 5, TNT Sports, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and CNN International, as well as Paramount+ and HBO Max.”
If Nandy decides to intervene, the Office of Communications, known as Ofcom, would launch an assessment of the deal. Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority also would determine how the merger might reshape the competitive landscape.
Teams from the two companies have been huddling for months to plan for the melding of the two operations as soon as Paramount receives all of its regulatory approvals.
Australia, New Zealand, China, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Serbia, France and Italy have already given their approvals to the deal.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is planning to contribute $10 billion to help the billionaire Ellison family pull off the merger, which would make the Saudi royal family a significant, although passive, equity owner. In addition, the royal families of Qatar and Abu Dhabi have agreed to each contribute $7 billion in equity financing.
The Federal Communications Commission must evaluate the foreign ownership stakes due to Paramount’s holding of CBS broadcast licenses. U.S. antitrust regulators already have concluded the combination would not violate federal anticompetition laws.
Approval had been expected because President Trump — who has friendly ties with Ellison and his father, tech billionaire Larry Ellison — favors the deal.
Trump has been eager for changes at CNN.
The U.S. government stopped short of asking Paramount to make concessions or divestitures. Many expect that Paramount may have to reconfigure its children’s television holdings abroad due to the proposed combination of two large players — Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.
Nandy suggested that Britain also should scrutinize the impact of combining two major streaming services HBO Max, a Warner property, with Paramount+.
HBO programming, including “Game of Thrones,” “Boardwalk Empire,” and “Succession,” has long been popular in Britain.
A coalition of state attorneys general, led by California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, also is expected to challenge the deal, in part, due to concerns about news media consolidation. Bonta’s office has said the matter remains under review.
Opposition to the deal has been building in the U.S. for months. A group of Hollywood activists — led by actors Jane Fonda and Mark Ruffalo — have spearheaded a “block the merger” campaign that now has support from more than 5,000 entertainment workers.
The group’s open letter calls on Bonta to take action to thwart the Ellison expansion effort. Paramount’s Chief Legal Officer Makan Delrahim has blasted the campaign, calling it “fear-mongering” and a partisan distortion of antitrust law.
Forrester’s Proulx noted differences in attitudes toward the deal among the various constituencies.
“For US consumers, this merger has become a proxy fight about political influence and control of media,” Proulx said. “In the UK, it’s being treated as a structural competition issue where regulators, not consumers, will decide how this deal plays out and how long it takes.”
Politics
Fetterman unleashes on ‘dirtbag’ wing of Dems after far-left victories: ‘Orgy of socialism’
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Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., unloaded on his own party on Sunday evening, blasting a series of victories for progressives he called “anti-America.”
“Big night for the dirtbag left,” Fetterman said, referring to New York’s recent primaries, where two members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) won primaries.
“I’ve said the party is becoming an orgy of socialism. Clearly anti-America, anti-Western Civilization,” Fetterman said.
Fetterman’s striking calls give a rare look at how some moderates may view the developments on their far-left flank that have dominated the party’s momentum in recent months, sparking concern that their high visibility is dragging the party further and further left.
FETTERMAN WARNS DEMOCRATS ‘DRIFTING FIRMLY INTO COMMUNISM’ AFTER SOCIALIST PRIMARY WINS
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., speaks to reporters outside the Senate Chamber during votes on Nov. 10, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
His comments come on the heels of a handful of key progressive victories.
In Maine, Graham Platner, a controversial Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, has attracted controversy for denying knowledge of the meaning behind a Nazi-linked tattoo, for off-color comments about race and calling himself a “communist” in a deleted Reddit post.
In New York, one DSA member, Claire Valdez, won a primary on a platform of abolishing ICE and a Green New Deal-style approach to climate change. Similarly, Darializa Avila-Chevalier, another DSA candidate, beat out incumbent Rep. Adriano Espillat, D-N.Y., a high-ranking Democrat and the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
WINNERS AND LOSERS EMERGE AFTER SOCIALIST EARTHQUAKE ROCKS NYC PRIMARIES
Graham Platner, Democratic Senate candidate for Maine, speaks at a primary election night event at the Blue Hill YMCA in Blue Hill, Maine, on June 9, 2026. Platner won the party’s Senate primary after a campaign marked by accusations of past misbehavior and voter concerns. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Both Chevalier and Valdez had the backing of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, himself a socialist.
The wins have captured national attention and drawn criticisms from Republicans who have pointed to their success as emblematic of the direction of the Democratic Party.
Fetterman, who has not shied away from confrontations, has been one of the few Democrats to express alarm about the kind of candidates carrying the party’s banner.
“I mean, you look at some of the things that people have said. Abolish prison, abolish the border, abolish ICE, I mean these crazy people — I have colleagues in my caucus that refuse to even call this out,” Fetterman said.
FETTERMAN REACTS TO MAMDANI’S REFUSAL TO ACCEPT SUPREME COURT’S IMMIGRATION RULING
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., walks through the Senate Subway during the Senate War Powers vote on April 22, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
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“Between P-hustle in Maine and some of the other winners in New York, they should form their own party and run on all the things that they’ve had to delete on social media,” Fetterman said, referring to Platner.
“That’s where our party has moved,” he added.
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