MRC founder and president Brent Bozell appeared on Fox's Life, Liberty & Levin on Sunday night to talk about Democrat convention coverage and share the latest Media Research Center poll about how little Biden voters know about the real campaign planks of Kamala Harris in the last presidential primary race.
Levin began: "Four full days of coverage of this Potemkin convention. I didn’t learn a damn thing about a damn thing. We had the media telling us what to think. The media telling us it’s joyful and the vibes are great. We have Jon Karl telling George Stephanopoulos that Kamala Harris reminds her of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Are these guys smoking something?"
Bozell underlined that the poll shows what she favored (and now won't talk about): 71 percent of Democrats didn’t know that she supported reparations for slavery; 86 percent didn’t know that she supports giving death row inmates the right to vote; 73 percent of Democrats didn’t know that she was a co-sponsor of the radical Green New Deal, 81 percent of Democrats didn’t know she favored abolishing private health insurance.
BOZELL The border is the number two issue facing Americans — Democrats, Republicans alike are looking at the border being overrun and they’re horrified by what’s happening. With that in mind, 72 percent of Democrats didn’t know that as border czar, she had never once been to a conflict zone, and they’re actually pretending that she was never the border czar; 77 percent of Democrats didn’t know that she supports eliminating ICE, but here’s the big one, Mark, the one that jumped off the page to me, 74 percent of Democrats do not know that she is in favor of not making it a crime to cross the border illegally.
Levin asked about the media's parlous performance, and Bozell argued
BOZELL: If I were a political reporter and the old fashioned Bob Novak kind of political, this election cycle would be the most intriguing election of my lifetime. In the middle of the campaign, the Democratic nominee, the presumptive nominee, who also happens to be the president of the United States is thrown under the bus by the Democratic political machine. I mean, what a story to investigate and yet silence. Kamala Harris, who was considered the whole time she was vice president, an absolutely inept vice president, everybody did, suddenly, suddenly, overnight, literally overnight, the entire Democratic machine declares she is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Both men agreed we have a corrupt one-party press, and that criticizing it isn't whining. Levin said "confronting a corrupt state-run media, whether in the United States or Russia or China or Cuba or Venezuela or Iran is not whining. That’s your civic duty. That’s your patriotic duty."
Bozell laid out a real-life scenario with NBC reporter Tom Llamas on the floor in Chicago: "If I were someone in the Democratic machine with the convention, I would want a reporter to go up to Chuck Schumer and ask him about the electricity in the room and ask him: “Talk to me about the atmosphere in here. Is it electric?” And then I would want that exact same reporter, three minutes later on air to say Senator Schumer wasn’t lying when he said, there’s lots of electricity, excitement right now."
Transcript below:
FNC's Life, Liberty & Levin
August 25, 2024
LEVIN: Hello, America. I’m here with our friend, Brent Bozell, Media Research Center, founder and president. Brent Bozell, four full days of coverage of this Potemkin convention. I didn’t learn a damn thing about a damn thing. We had the media telling us what to think. The media telling us it’s joyful and the vibes are great. We have Jon Karl telling George Stephanopoulos that Kamala Harris reminds her of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Are these guys smoking something? Did we learn something from this convention?
BRENT BOZELL: No, no, and I’ll give you some numbers, which startled me. We took a survey of Democratic voters leading into the elections to see what they knew about Kamala Harris. Mark, the numbers are not to be believed, 71 percent of Democrats didn’t know that she supported reparations to atone for slavery; 86 percent didn’t know that she supports giving death row inmates the right to vote; 73 percent of Democrats didn’t know that she was a co-sponsor of the radical Green New Deal, 81 percent of Democrats didn’t know health insurance is one of the most important issues out there, that she’s in favor of eliminating all private health insurance. You heard me right, 71 percent of Democrats didn’t know that she was in favor of defunding the police, 78 percent of Democrats didn’t know that she set up the fund to bail out protesters during the 2020 riots. The border is the number two issue facing Americans — Democrats, Republicans alike are looking at the border being overrun and they’re horrified by what’s happening. With that in mind, 72 percent of Democrats didn’t know that as border czar, she had never once been to a conflict zone, and they’re actually pretending that she was never the border czar; 77 percent of Democrats didn’t know that she supports eliminating ICE, but here’s the big one, Mark, the one that jumped off the page to me, 74 percent of Democrats do not know that she is in favor of not making it a crime to cross the border illegally. In other words, complete open borders, anybody can come in, and it’s not a crime to do that, 74 percent so that was leading into the convention, I can guarantee you, Mark Levin, leaving the convention, nothing has changed because they never addressed any one of these issues. Had they made their case to the American people on all of these things, saying, I believe these things, I believe that death row inmates ought to get the right to vote, I believe we need to eliminate the police, I believe we need to have open borders, I believe we need to take away your private health insurance. Had she made that argument, Donald Trump would be ahead by 30 points right now.
LEVIN: You’re a hundred percent right. So let’s dig into this a little bit, because we had four days of wall-to-wall coverage and convention, we learned absolutely nothing. It’s all so weird, the media are so weird. The people they interview are so weird. It’s just the whole damn thing is like — it’s just strange. We’re supposed to be in the greatest democracy on the face of the Earth. We’re supposed to have the greatest free press on the face of the Earth, and we have a candidate for president of the United States, who is the vice president the United States, the American people do not know, and by God, if she has her way, her party has her way, and the media have her way, the American people will never know about her right up to and including on election day and I see liberals and Democrats on this network and other networks say, but it’s working. What’s working? It’s not working for the American people. What do you see?
BOZELL: Well, it’s working because those same Democrats in the media are enabling it for it to happen. Look, Mark, you know, I would think, if I were a political reporter and the old fashioned Bob Novak kind of political, this election cycle would be the most intriguing election of my lifetime. In the middle of the campaign, the Democratic nominee, the presumptive nominee, who also happens to be the president of the United States is thrown under the bus by the Democratic political machine. I mean, what a story to investigate and yet silence. Kamala Harris, who was considered the whole time she was vice president, an absolutely inept vice president, everybody did, suddenly, suddenly, overnight, literally overnight, the entire Democratic machine declares she is the greatest thing since sliced bread. This is a great story for the media just to investigate. And yet, and yet, and yet, they have been the ones who have put the kibosh. All of this talk about Kamal Harris won’t do an interview. What about reporters doing a story? This is being lost. Reporters are deliberately keeping the kibosh on her record. They don’t want the American people to know who she is.
LEVIN: Yes, and that’s what happens in authoritarian regimes, not great Constitutional Republics. So what is this? Is it an authoritarian regime? Or is it a great constitutional republic? We’ll explore that when we return. We’ll be right back....
LEVIN: Welcome back. Brent Bozell, I love the way the Democrats talk about democracy, free speech, when, of course, they reject democracy and free speech. This is the most authoritarian regime in Washington, DC we’ve ever seen, and they have their state-run media, compliant black dog media with them, because so many Democrats populate so many of these newsrooms and these platforms. So they’ve come together. They did it with Biden. Now they’re doing it with her. But I listen to you on the polling numbers, I see a downside and an upside. You see a downside and an upside too?
BOZELL: Yes, look, the downside is the strategy is working, and it’s working beyond their wildest dreams. America believes — the Democratic Party believes that Kamala Harris is a moderate. Rachel Maddow, her read on the speech was and I am making this up, “You will remember where you were when you heard the speech on this night. This is an inflection point in history.” That’s how they presented this. a Reagan-esque Maggie Thatcher-esque. It is working when you see that the Democrats don’t know anything about her radical record, and the fact that she, along with her vice presidential candidate, is the most radical person ever to run for the presidency of the United States. The bad news for the Trump campaign is that this is working to perfection. The very good news for the Trump campaign is he can drive a truck right through this, if he focuses on these issues. Look, Mark, if I were — if this were Donald Trump speaking right now, I would give a speech, and I would say, my opponent believes that we need to pay reparations for slavery. My opponent believes that death row inmates need to have the right to vote. My opponent co-sponsored the radical Green New Deal. My opponent wants to eliminate your private health care. My opponent supports defunding the police. My opponent supports putting together bail funds to bail out radical protesters. My opponent, as borders czar never went to a conflict zone. My opponent believes in abolishing ICE, and my opponent believes it shouldn’t be a crime to enter this country illegally. If you support that, please vote for my opponent. If you don’t support that, if you love America, vote for me. Boom and then I would say, and I’m going to go play golf in Scotland. I’ll be back on election day. You all talk among yourselves and let me know — and that’s the speech I will make.
LEVIN: Well, yes, and I’d add to it. My opponent takes Hamas statistics and use them against the state of Israel. My opponent does not believe in free speech. My opponent believes in destroying the independence of the Supreme Court. My opponent believes in destroying our voting system and eliminating the electoral college. And you can go on and on and on, and I think President Trump has been doing more and more of that. The problem is, people say, why do you keep whining about the media? First of all, confronting a corrupt state-run media, whether in the United States or Russia or China or Cuba or Venezuela or Iran is not whining. That’s your civic duty. That’s your patriotic duty. We don’t have a free press in this country, as you have demonstrated over and over and over again. We have a party press. We have a press that defends centralized authoritarian government. This election, Brent Bozell, tell me if you agree or disagree, is about them, too. How many more election cycles are we going to allow them to interfere in the election so the American people are not aware of the candidate that the Democrats run? Whether he is mentally disabled or whether the candidate is as dumb as a doorknob.
BOZELL: The public needs to understand there is no daylight whatsoever between the media — the news media, and the Democratic Party. No daylight. If I was Hillary Clinton’s press secretary and I wanted to put out a statement about how good Hillary Clinton’s speech would be, I would say the feeling here is, when Hillary Clinton spoke, it was as if somebody had plugged in a cable, a current had connected, and there was pure electricity in the room. Well, that was actually a report from a CBS reporter. If I were someone in the Democratic machine with the convention, I would want a reporter to go up to Chuck Schumer and ask him about the electricity in the room and ask him: “Talk to me about the atmosphere in here. Is it electric?” And then I would want that exact same reporter, three minutes later on air to say Senator Schumer wasn’t lying when he said, there’s lots of electricity, excitement right now. If I were somebody in the convention, I would want somebody to say the bench right now, the Democratic bench right now, is as electric. Notice how they’re all using the same word — is as electric as I’ve ever seen in the Democratic Party. That’s what I would want. These were all — that was Rachel Maddow. The reporters are giving the talking points for the Democratic Party. The public must understand this. You’re not getting news anymore. What you’re getting is the talking points of a radicalized Democratic Party. Full stop. There’s no other discussion.
LEVIN: You’re a hundred percent right. Brent Bozell, thank you, my friend, and keep up the great work.
BOZELL: Thank you. Thanks for what you’re doing, Mark.
