Fox's Martha MacCallum floats racist lie that George Floyd died from a drug overdose

The same lie jumps from Tucker Carlson's show to a Fox “straight news” program

Written by Katherine Abughazaleh

Published

Today on The Story, Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum began the show with a question: “Did George Floyd die from the drugs in his system or the knee on his neck?” MacCallum is entertaining a blatant lie.

A fact check of Fox's Tucker Carlson making the same claim in February found that neither of the two autopsies performed after Floyd’s killing by police in May 2020 reported that he had "died of drugs or a pre-existing condition, but instead that his heart stopped and that the cause of death was restraint.”

These facts have not stopped right-wing media from lying about the circumstances around Floyd’s death -- and now MacCallum is promoting the same racist myth on Fox’s “straight news” side as well.

From the April 8, 2021, edition of Fox News' The Story with Martha MacCallum

MARTHA MACCALLUM (ANCHOR): We are waiting for a crucial decision from the judge in the Chauvin trial in Minneapolis. This man, Maurice Hall -- who you'll see in a second on the right-hand side of your screen. He was with George Floyd, he was in the car on May 25. They drove to Cup Foods. Remember we heard Floyd's girlfriend testify that she didn't like Maurice Hall. She believes he sold drugs to George Floyd. We are expecting a decision from the judge on whether Hall will be compelled to testify in this trial. He clearly knows what happened before the police arrived and what ensued in the struggle to arrest George Floyd. He also may know about -- look at these pictures here -- the pills that were found on the floor of Floyd's car and then a partial pill that was found in the police car that Floyd was briefly in, all of which tested positive for methamphetamine and fentanyl.

So did George Floyd die from the drugs in his system or the knee on his neck? That is the key question for the 12 members of this jury.