Fox News footage of a recent visit Donald Trump made to a New York City barbershop required extensive edits to make Trump’s answers cogent, a CNN review found.
Trump made his appearance last week at the Bronx barbershop in order to sit for an interview with “Fox and Friends” co-host Lawrence Jones as part of a recurring barbershop-themed segment. He also took audience questions.
CNN media reporters compared the segment that Fox broadcast to its viewers with a longer version shared on social media by someone who’d been in the barbershop that day.
In one particularly egregious example, Fox showed Trump immediately responding in the affirmative to a question about eliminating federal taxes.
Where Fox’s edit appeared seamless, CNN found Trump actually rambled for more than seven minutes about inheritance taxes, the Keystone Pipeline, Ronald Reagan, Russia and transgender athletes.
Only after the questioner repeatedly steered Trump back on track did he actually answer the question.
Other moments left out of the broadcast included Trump praising the far-right leader of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, and repeating debunked lies about immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio, and Aurora, Colo.
A Fox News spokesperson told HuffPost that every “Fox & Friends” barbershop segment is pre-taped and edited. “The Bronx edition ran for nearly an hour and was cut for time and clarity,” the spokesperson said.
The edits are particularly noteworthy given Trump — and Fox — have accused CBS News of editing a “60 Minutes” segment to make Vice President Kamala Harris look more presidential, with Trump even going so far as to call for CBS to lose its broadcasting license. (The FCC licenses individual broadcast stations, not TV networks, so it wouldn’t have the power to comply with Trump’s demand.)
A Trump spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump has demanded Fox go even easier on him, reportedly going so far as to plead with former Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch that the network stop airing commercials that paint him in a negative light.