Anti-abortion hecklers interrupted a Kamala Harris rally. Fox News and MAGA media turned them into culture war heroes — and Trump ran with it.

How Fox News manufactured outrage over anti-abortion Harris rally hecklers to smear Democrats as anti-Christian

Written by Helena Hind

Published

After Vice President Kamala Harris shut down anti-abortion hecklers at a campaign rally, Fox News pundits saw an opportunity to add a new misleading talking point to former President Donald Trump’s arsenal. Within days, the former president used Fox’s talking points as fodder to smear Democrats as anti-Christian on the campaign trail.

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  • Kamala Harris told anti-abortion hecklers they were “at the wrong rally” after they interrupted her

    The exchange happened during an October 17 campaign rally, while Harris was speaking about reproductive rights. As she criticized Trump’s role in overturning Roe v. Wade, the vice president was interrupted by hecklers in the crowd.

    “Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally,” she retorted. “No, I think you meant to go to the smaller one down the street.”

    As the moment went viral on social media, another version of the clip gained traction among high-profile  MAGA accounts alleging that Harris was specifically responding to a heckler saying “Jesus is Lord.”

    “Christians are not welcome in Kamala’s Democrat Party,” claimed TPUSA’s Charlie Kirk. “Vote accordingly.”

  • The talking point inevitably made its way from Fox News’ airwaves to Trump

    The hecklers first appeared on the network during the October 20 edition of Fox & Friends Weekend. “This is our first time taking an interview with anybody,” one of them confirmed to co-host Will Cain, before alleging that he was kicked out of the rally for voicing his Christian beliefs.

    Co-host Rachel-Campos Duffy solidified Fox’s version of the story with her question: “Luke said something about Jesus, right? ‘Jesus is King, Jesus is Lord,’ and she said, ‘You’re not welcome here.’ I want to know what you felt in that moment.”

    The next day, October 21, Fox & Friends co-hosts Lawrence Jones, Ainsley Earhardt, and Brian Kilmeade continued to criticize Harris for supposedly disparaging Christianity. “I was shocked that any politician would put down the number one religion in our country,” Earhardt complained, before re-airing clips of the hecklers’ October 20 interview.

    Later that day, host Laura Ingraham said Harris “sent a clear message to Christians: ‘You’re not welcome here.’”

    From the October 21, 2024, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle

    The hecklers themselves also made an appearance in Ingraham’s show, repeating the right-wing media version of the story. A chyron reading “The Left’s anti-Christian rhetoric” briefly aired.

    Sean Hannity hosted the hecklers on his radio show on October 22, one of whom alleged Harris was “publicly denouncing the name of the Lord.” The Fox host was happy to agree: “‘Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally because you believe in Jesus?’ I thought Democrats prided themselves in being open-minded.” 

    By October 22, the story had made its way to the Trump campaign. A video posted to his X account spliced an edited version of the Harris clip with a soundbite from a Trump speech: “While Kamala says that people who believe in Jesus don’t belong to her rallies, in our movement, we love Christians, we welcome believers, and we embrace followers of Jesus.”

    This is just another example of the stubborn Fox-Trump feedback loop, which has persisted well into 2024. As Election Day nears, the pundits will likely continue to manufacture outrage, and misleading stories, and jokes for the former president to repeat on the campaign trail.