Even Fox News couldn't tolerate Ted Cruz's lie about Kamala Harris

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was corrected on the air by a Fox News host on Thursday night after falsely claiming that Vice President Kamala Harris “urged violence” by Black Lives Matter protesters.

Cruz’s allegation came as he was defending Donald Trump against charges of incitement during an appearance on “Fox News @ Night.”

Cruz claimed that in the summer of 2020, while “cities were burning, while police cars were being firebombed, while police officers were being murdered all across the country,” Harris appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and “said these riots will continue and they should continue.”

“She urged the violence to continue,” Cruz said.

Fox News host Shannon Bream stopped Cruz as he was speaking to point out that he was not telling the truth.

“Encouraging protests is different than encouraging violence, so I think we need to be careful in how we describe her words,” Bream said.

Cruz immediately changed his tune and said neither what Harris had said nor what Trump said to his followers on Jan. 6 “incitement.”

The lie that Harris encouraged violence has been circulated by conservatives for months, taking her words out of context and claiming that they referred to riots.

During her appearance on his show in June, Colbert mentioned that protests against police violence targeting Black people were still going on. Harris responded,

That’s right. But they’re not gonna stop. They’re not gonna stop, and this is a movement, I’m telling you.

They’re not gonna stop, and everyone beware, because they’re not gonna stop. They’re not gonna stop before Election Day in November, and they’re not gonna stop after Election Day.

Everyone should take note of that, on both levels, that they’re not going to let up — and they should not. And we should not.

Harris has explicitly condemned violence, while expressing support for the right to protest peacefully.

From the Feb. 11 edition of “Fox News @ Night”:

TED CRUZ: And a point that I hope that President Trump’s lawyers make tomorrow is, if you look at the comments of Bernie Sanders, of Nancy Pelosi, of Chuck Schumer, of Maxine Waters, if you look at Kamala Harris, there is no coherent basis under the standard they put forward for concluding President Trump’s comments were incitement, and Kamala Harris’ wasn’t.

 

While we were having Black Lives Matter and antifa riots all over the country, while cities were burning, while police cars were being firebombed, while police officers were being murdered all across the country, Vice President Harris went on national television on “Stephen Colbert” and said these riots will continue and they should continue. She urged the violence to continue and I’ll tell you Shannon, she did even more than that.

 

SHANNON BREAM, Fox News: Okay. Just hold on a second though.

 

CRUZ: She raised money to bail out the violent criminals —

 

BREAM: Yes.

 

CRUZ: — who had been arrested for committing crimes of violence.

 

BREAM: And that is true. But encouraging protests is different than encouraging violence, so I think we need to be careful in how we describe her words.

 

CRUZ: Except, President Trump, if you look at his remarks on Jan. 6, he urged people to be peaceful and patriotic. He did not praise violence, he didn’t encourage violence —

 

BREAM: I noticed that wasn’t in the videos.

 

CRUZ: — and they edited out the word peaceful. And my point is simple, look, neither one of those were incitement.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.