Maria Bartiromo's Fox show makes false claim about Kamala Harris, echoing MAGA extremists

Kamala Harris said she owns a gun. Her staffer repeated her claim — but MAGA media pretended the staffer said the exact opposite, and Fox contributor Liz Peek and Bartiromo ran with it on air, before partially walking it back.

Written by John Whitehouse

Research contributions from Sage Hodil

Published

At a September 19 campaign event with Oprah Winfrey, Vice President Kamala Harris discussed owning a firearm, saying that if someone broke into her house, “they’re getting shot”:

This became a bit of a flashpoint on the campaign, with the Trump campaign also elevating the remark.

On September 20, Harris campaign staffer Adrienne Elrod appeared on CNN and reiterated that Harris does own a firearm, saying, “She supports strong responsible gun ownership, and she does own a firearm.” You can see the transcript here.

However, MAGA accounts on social media began circulating a mistranscription of Elrod’s remarks to make it appear that she was saying the exact opposite of what she said.

The Harris campaign called this out on September 21:

Nevertheless, on the morning of September 23, Fox News contributor Liz Peek and Fox “straight news” anchor Maria Bartiromo pushed the demonstrably false claim on air:

From the September 23, 2024, edition of Fox Business' Mornings with Maria

MARIA BARTIROMO (ANCHOR): Imagine if Trump said that, right? She said to Oprah: Anybody comes in my house they're getting shot. And then she starts cracking up about it, oh I shouldn't have said that, my staff is going to have to deal with it. Imagine if Trump said that, Liz.

LIZ PEEK (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR):  Actually, it turns out now she's actually confessed that she doesn't have a gun so that's —

BARTIROMO: Are you serious? 

PEEK: -- that entire conversation is off the table.

BARTIROMO: I missed that completely. Are you telling me she admitted it?

PEEK: Yeah, no, her campaign has said no, no she doesn't actually have a gun.

BARTIROMO: So she lied. Was she lying now or is she lying then? So she lied. 

PEEK: Yeah. I mean again, Maria, she lies all the time so this is not a big surprise.

...

BARTIROMO: I'm really having a hard time getting my head around this, that she's admitting she doesn't have a gun.

PEEK: I know, I know. I tweeted about it last week, where is it? Has she had training? You know, does she have a gun in every house? I mean, it was such a preposterous claim. It was definitely interesting.

MARK TEPPER (GUEST):  And she'll get away with it unscathed. She's never going to be held accountable for any of these lies.

BARTIROMO: I mean just in the last three weeks she said it several times. She said it at the debate, she has a gun, that she's gun carrying, her and Tim Walz are gun-carrying people. And then she said it in the Oprah interview again. Listen to this, we've got to hear this, because it's amazing to me that she's saying now she doesn't have a gun, watch this.

...

BARTIROMO: So that's how they're dealing with it. They're admitting, oh no, that was made up. Is that what they said, Liz, that that was made up?

PEEK: I read that, Maria, and I'm looking at it now. Pretty, pretty sure that that's true.

BARTIROMO: Wow.

Later in the show, Peek and Bartiromo sort of cast doubt on the claim, with Peek saying she “might be wrong” but continued calling the totally made-up claim “mind-bogglingly dishonest” and promised to get to the bottom of it. Neither she nor Baritomo fully retracted their remarks:

From the September 23, 2024, edition of Fox Business' Mornings with Maria

MARIA BARTIROMO (ANCHOR): Liz, I have the team calling Kamala Harris' campaign to get to the bottom of this. Okay? Because earlier you said that the campaign says she doesn't own a gun, and she was so — I am just finding
that so hard to believe — because she was so adamant about it.

LIZ PEEK (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): So, I can't find it. Maria, I can't find the reference. I know I read it and I might be wrong, so apologies if that's the case, but it was sort of, it struck me too as mind-bogglingly dishonest —

BARTIROMO: Right.

PEEK: — If it is true. So I am glad they're calling, thank you.

Bartiromo was deeply involved in promoting the Dominion Voting Systems election conspiracy theories that Fox News paid for (including following Trump 2020 campaign directives to promote January 6), and recently has been promoting more wild MAGA conspiracy theories.