Ahead of the 2024 election, former President Donald Trump was fact-checked several times in a Fox News interview with Howard Kurtz on Sunday.
As the 2024 presidential race enters its final stretch, in which Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, will face off against Vice President Kamala Harris, both campaigns have continued to conduct TV interviews in an effort to win over the remaining undecided voters.
In a Sunday interview on Fox News’ Media Blitz, Kurtz spoke to Trump on a wide range of topics.
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a campaign rally at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre on October 15, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. Trump was repeatedly fact checked in a Fox News interview on Sunday.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
However, during the interview, which was pre-taped, Kurtz pressed Trump on several of his claims, fact-checking him on points related to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot and his false claims involving Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio.
When asked about his previous comments at a town hall hosted by Univision, in which he called January 6 a “day of love” and the subsequent backlash, Trump doubled down on why he made the remark.
“A small group of people went down to the capital and then a lot of strange things happened , including police ushering them into the capital, you know that. So I’m not referring to that, what I’m saying is what I saw that day was a tremendous crowd in front of these beautiful monuments, it was a protest…there was nobody killed, nobody had guns here either,” Trump said.
This prompted Kurtz to interject stating, “There were people with guns.”
In response, Trump said, “Really? I’d like to know…Really, I have not heard that at all. No. I don’t think so. They had no guns.”
While Trump and others have claimed there were no firearms among protesters that day, there is substantial and clear evidence that there were protesters with guns, as several of them have since been charged with carrying firearms.
Among the more than 800 people charged in connection with the January 6 riot at that time, more than 85 have been accused of using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.
In addition, after airing that interview segment Kurtz fact checked on air stating, “To clarify, police did not usher protesters into the Capitol. They were totally overrun, though in some cases they may have beaten a tactical retreat. Donald Trump continues to argue as you know that the last election was rigged thought that’s never been proven in any of the lawsuits filed.”
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s campaign via email for comment.
Meanwhile, when speaking on the false claims that Haitian migrants in Springfield have been killing pets and eating them, Kurtz challenged Trump on claims asking why he did not say they were not true.
In response Trump said, “I don’t know if it’s true or not,” which prompted Kurtz to push back stating, “You don’t know? It’s been debunked.”
Trump in response said, “What about the goose, the geese? What about the geese? What happened there? I have no idea.”
This is not the first time Kurtz has fact-checked Trump’s campaign. In April during an appearance on Fox News, Karoline Leavitt, the national press secretary for Trump’s 2024 campaign, was asked by Kurtz about the gag order, which she characterized as an attempt by Democratic political forces to silence him.
“The Democrats want President Trump confined to a courtroom…And that’s exactly why you see these gag orders coming down,” Leavitt claimed. “Not only are they prosecuting him, but they want to silence him. It’s a complete violation of his First Amendment rights.”
In turn, Kurtz corrected her statement with a note about the actual scope of the gag order and said, “He can still talk about the case, but I’m glad to have your response on that.”
In March, Kurtz issued another on-air correction, this time to remarks that Trump made in an interview with the host in which he claimed that Democrats supported abortions deep into the third trimester and “after the baby’s born.” He specifically cited misrepresented comments from former Democratic Virginia Governor Ralph Northam about late-term abortions.
“On late-term abortions, former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam did say that in cases of severe deformity or non-viable fetus, the mother and doctors would decide what to do once the baby was born,” Kurtz said. “But later backed off, with a spokesperson saying he was not talking about killing babies, but extremely rare and tragic cases. A CDC survey says fewer than 1 percent of all abortions take place at or after seven months of pregnancy.”
