Fox News senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram has yet to appear on the network to discuss his big Tuesday night scoop: A fact sheet authored by House Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee which he obtained reveals that Fox and Republicans have been pushing false claims about the federal response to Hurricane Helene.
Pergram posted to X at 9:36 p.m. ET on October 8:
Fox has obtained a fact sheet assembled by the majority side of House Appropriations Committee about disaster aid.
It says that FEMA “has enough funding in the short-term to address immediate needs for both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.”
It also declares there is “no funding connection between” the migrant shelter program and the Disaster Relief Fund. It adds there is “no intermingling of funding between these two programs.” It adds that “the only connection is that both programs are administered by FEMA.”
The fact sheet as Pergram reported it amounts to a damning repudiation of former President Donald Trump’s lies about the federal response. On the campaign trail, Trump has falsely claimed that the Biden administration “stole the FEMA money, just like they stole it from a bank, so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them this season,” and that Vice President Kamala Harris spent “all her FEMA money” housing immigrants.
Trump's strategy of grievance-mongering for political gain relies on the impermeable echo chamber created by his propagandists at Pergram’s network and elsewhere. They have spent the last week eagerly peddling the same lies about Democrats looting disaster aid to help immigrants.
“FEMA is running low on funds because they’re blowing it all on illegals,” star host Jesse Watters claimed. According to Laura Ingraham, “Democrats are prioritizing the needs of noncitizens, and now we learn many of them are violent, depraved criminals.”
Pergram’s scoop has not changed the trajectory of Fox’s coverage. On Wednesday morning, Fox contributor Miranda Devine told the hosts of Fox & Friends that “FEMA was handing out money to illegal migrants instead of keeping it for hurricane victims.” Meanwhile, at around the same time on Fox Business, anchor Maria Bartiromo did appear to reference the House Republican memo Pergram obtained — but only to attack it, questioning whether they were “lying.”
But Pergram has not appeared on Fox to discuss his story — which shows House Republicans trying to swat down such claims — as of publication time.
Fox “news side” figures like Pergram give Fox the appearance of a real news operation rather than a corrupt propaganda machine, but in practice the network downplays major stories they break if those stories are bad for Trump or the GOP.
Media Matters will update this post if the network allows Pergram on the air to tell its viewers the truth.
