Fox's John Roberts obscures Harris' plan for Black men by claiming her closing pitch to them is just calling Trump a “fascist”

Written by Gideon Taaffe

Published

On October 23, during a segment about Black men and the election, Fox News anchor John Roberts framed some of Vice President Kamala Harris’ criticism of former President Donald Trump as her “closing argument” to Black men, ignoring the components of Harris’ policy platform that address Black men directly. 

Roberts falsely claimed: “She's not saying to young Black men across the country, ‘Here's what I'm going to do for you economically.'” 

Harris released a platform that has concrete proposals targeted at Black men, including entrepreneurial loans, job training, and an initiative to address health issues that disproportionately affect Black men. 

Roberts briefly mentioned Harris’ plan on October 15 and aired a graphic showing some of the plan details for a few seconds. The following day he claimed Black voters feel Harris is trying to “buy their vote.” 

Then on October 23, he criticized her over her response to John Kelly’s comments that Trump fits “into the general definition of fascist” and wanted the “kind of generals Hitler had,” claiming that’s her “closing argument” to Black men and that she’s not telling them what she’s “going to do for [them] economically”:

From the October 23, 2024, edition of Fox News' America Reports

JOHN ROBERTS (ANCHOR): Fred, final question to you, what we are seeing Kamala Harris' closing argument for the last 13 days is 'Trump is a fascist, he embraces Hitler and wants to have his generals.' She's not saying to young Black men across the country: 'Here's what I'm going to do for you economically.' Well at least, it's not illegal, like what she proposed before. Is at the right closing argument? And for her to call Trump a fascist, what do Black men think about that?

FRED HICKS (GUEST): Well, those are Trump's words, not her closing argument. Trump is the one who said he admires Hitler's generals —

ROBERTS: Yeah, but she is the one making a point, is that what black voters want to hear? 

HICKS: It is his generals and his administration, people who are talking about that and the reporters — 

ROBERTS: But Fred, maybe I'm not articulating it right. But if you are a Black man in the United States and you are trained to make up your mind who to vote for and you were on the cusp of going with Trump, is calling him a fascist going to change your vote?