Fox anchor Bill Hemmer misinformed viewers about Bernie Sanders’ tax proposals 

Written by Courtney Hagle

Published

On Fox show America’s Newsroom, co-anchor Bill Hemmer peddled misinformation regarding Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) tax proposals.

On April 15, Sanders had a town hall on Fox News, where hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum questioned him about his tax proposals. The following morning, Hemmer falsely stated that Sanders claimed that “everybody should pay 52%.” In reality, Sanders' plan proposes a 52% top marginal tax rate only for people whose annual income is greater than $10 million.

From the April 16 edition of Fox News’ America’s Newsroom:

BILL HEMMER: I think you can find some contradictions in what he said. Look, the taxes show that he paid 26%, but with Bret and Martha he said everybody should pay 52%.

BYRON YORK (WASHINGTON EXAMINER): Well, you know, that kind of put him in the middle of the Democratic Party because Bret and Martha were asking about proposals among Democrats that the top federal income tax rate -- individual rate be 70 or 80 or 90%. And he said no, no, no, it wasn't that high and then in our last campaign I called for 52%. And the bigger question of course was “well, why don't you just pay that. You can.” Clearly doesn't want to do that, kind of like in campaign finance reform when people say they want to take the money out of politics but as long as it's legal they'll take those contributions.

Previously:

Following Bernie Sanders' Fox News town hall, Fox's Stuart Varney rails against Sanders' tax plan: “Where's the fairness?”

On Fox “straight news,” guest Art Laffer says Bernie Sanders being elected president would cause a total market collapse

Fox News will leverage Sen. Bernie Sanders’ town hall to sanitize its brand