Fox News edited Trump’s confusing answers and false claims in his barbershop interview

New York () –– The recent segment on the Fox News channel about Donald Trump’s “surprise” visit to a barbershop in the Bronx seemed like a campaign ad for the former president’s re-election.

The clip featured Trump, who answered questions while chatting with black and Hispanic customers and workers from different hair salons, some of whom were wearing T-shirts with the legend “Make Barbers Great Again.” The visit was part of a series of hair salon interviews being conducted by “Fox & Friends” co-host Lawrence Jones.

But the version of the visit shown on television was, to use a metaphor for the topic, a haircut. Fox removed many of Trump’s rambling comments and false claims. Participants had to insist when Trump strayed from the original topic of his questions.

reviewed a more complete video of the barbershop visit that was uploaded to Instagram on the day of Trump’s appearance in the Bronx and compared it to segments shown on “Fox & Friends” on Monday.

The Fox editions omitted numerous Trump tangents and exaggerations, a surprising decision given Trump’s recent attacks on the CBS news magazine program “60 Minutes” for editing an interview with his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, earlier this month. .

Trump’s complaints about “60 Minutes” center on an edit of Harris’ commentary on the relationship between Israel and the United States. Trump accused CBS of manipulating Harris’ interview to “make her look better” and demanded CBS release the unedited transcript of the interview, something CBS refused to do.

Ironically, however, Fox edited out several of Trump’s recent appearances on the network, including his visit to the hair salon. And some of the edits certainly make it look better.

The television broadcast omitted Trump’s comments about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. The former president had told barbershop customers that “they just dropped off 50,000 people—32,000 immigrants from another country—in Springfield, Ohio. “They don’t know what to do.” The actual number of immigrants in Springfield is much lower, according to the city’s own data. The broadcast also omitted Trump’s gross exaggerations about crime in Aurora, Colorado.

One of the most revealing parts of the exchange began when an audience member asked Trump about the possibility of finding a way to eliminate federal taxes in the future. On Fox, Trump immediately responded affirmatively: “There is a way.”

But that response from Trump came more than seven minutes later, after Trump (and Jones) brought up other topics, including inheritances, the Keystone pipeline, Ronald Reagan, Russia and transgender athletes. Trump had to be brought back on track by an anonymous audience member, who continued to ramble on, apologizing, and said, “I couldn’t finish my question.” After repeating his tax question one more time, Trump said, “There is a way.”

But at Fox, everything was put together as a seamless back and forth.

Fox also cut out some of the former president’s insults, such as when he mocked the Wall Street Journal, Fox’s sister property. “Don’t listen” to the “idiots on Wall Street or the Wall Street Journal, because they don’t understand it,” Trump told him. to the barbershop audience.

In another unreleased part of the visit, Trump praised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, calling him a “very respected guy.” That exchange underscored Trump’s tendency to favor autocratic leaders, but Fox chose not to share it with viewers.

A Fox News spokeswoman said all of Jones’ barbershop segments are pre-recorded and edited. The Bronx edition ran nearly an hour and was trimmed to save time and clarity, the network said.

Trump’s recent appearance on Fox News’ MediaBuzz show was also pre-recorded and edited. One clear cut came when Trump began repeating his false claims about the 2020 election, a sensitive topic for Fox as the network is still dealing with defamation lawsuits related to its 2020 coverage.

“They came to protest a rigged election,” Trump said, referring to January 6. Then there was a sudden cut, suggesting that some of Trump’s distortions were removed.