Late Tuesday on the Fox News Channel’s Fox News @ Night, NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck joined fill-in host Kevin Corke and fellow panelist Amber Duke of The Spectator to lay waste to the full-court press by the Biden administration to label raw, unedited videos illustrating President Biden’s cognitive decline as deep fakes, “cheap fakes”, and part of a far-right disinformation campaign.
Houck also stuck around for the show’s final segment (dubbed The Nightcap) with other guests from throughout the show to weigh on even more restrictions for the June 27 debate on CNN.
First, to the “cheap fakes” charade. Corke went first to Houck by admitting he had “been looking forward to talking to you all day long, because this is those topics you just kind of have to shake your head, because I know what I’m looking at”.
Houck concurred what the Biden regime has claimed as fake is, in fact, real, “raw video” with “no airbrushing of this at all.”
Houck then relayed a comparison back to 2020 when then-President Trump walked slowly down a ramp after a speech at West Point and that led to widespread liberal media huffing and puffing that this showed Trump in a weakened mental and physical state:
There were some signs of cognitive impairment, physical impairment. Nicolle Wallace of Rich, White Liberal, Wine Mom Story Hour on MSNBC, spent 12 and a half minutes on one day, complaining about that wondering, oh, my gosh, there is something afoot here. The White House, this phrase that they workshopped here is a complete flop.
Duke said moments later this was “incredible” the White House really decided to go with this “cheap fake term”, adding: “I guess, they can’t say deep fake, because that implies that there was some sort of A.I. manipulation of the video. So, they have come up with...cheap fake, which just means that it’s a video that makes Joe Biden look bad and – and to be honest, this is really so desperate...to really tell people to not believe their own lying eyes.”
Corke then had Duke and Houck opine on the comical new cover for New York magazine with the headline “Are Republican Women Okay?”
Houck blasted the far-left rag for putting the word women in a headline seeing as how “this is the magazine and the party where they don’t even know what an actual woman is.”
“They’re constantly redefining [it]...[W]omen [are], you know, all in your mind, it’s all subjective here. It’s a construct. So, for them to make that argument during June, during pride month is just all the more comical. I think the American people see right through this, and that’s why these magazines are failing,” Houck added.
Duke hit the nail on the head when she said these smears are what “[c]onservative and Republican women have been dealing with this for decades” and “it’s all about just discrediting anyone who thinks differently than the liberal mob...and they will continue to do it because it’s a convenient way to just attack their political opponents”.
Before wrapping, Corke lambasted this attack as “an intentional obfuscation of your ability to say, these are the facts” when women “can make these decisions on their own” and “don’t need to be told how to vote”.
Fast-forwarding to The Nightcap, Houck argued Trump should counter with an ask for Biden to stand (and thus oppose any calls for it to be a seated debate).
“For Donald Trump,” Houck explained, “the bigger issue is the biased moderators” with one of them (Jake Tapper) having attacked Trump just hours earlier by saying the press are “fighting for the facts and truth every day” and have “step[ped] up to the plate.”
To see the relevant transcript from June 18, click “expand.”
Fox News @ Night
June 18, 2024
11:08 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: WH Alleges Misleading, “Cheap Fake” Biden Videos]
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: They are cheap fakes video. They are done in bad faith. [SCREEN WIPE] I think that it tells you everything that we need to know about how desperate – how desperate Republicans are here and instead of talking about the president’s performance in office – [SCREEN WIPE] – we are seeing these deep fakes, these manipulated videos.
KEVIN CORKE: Deep fakes, cheap fakes, manipulation. For the record, the Fox News Channel has not aired any manipulated videos of President Biden. But with this stirring up so much controversy, we thought we would discuss it further with tonight’s media panel. NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck, and The Spectator’s Washington editor, Amber Duke. You know, Curtis, I’ve been looking forward to talking to you all day long, because this is those topics you just kind of have to shake your head, because I know what I’m looking at. I’ve seen this with my own two eyes, the White House cannot outspend this.
CURTIS HOUCK: This is raw video, Kevin. It’s – and there is no airbrushing of this at all. You think back to 2020, and I recall that moment where President Trump walked slowly down a ramp at West Point, and –
CORKE: That was wet.
HOUCK: Yes, yeah, it was wet. It was – you know, made a huge deal out of it.
CORKE: Yes.
HOUCK: There were some signs of cognitive impairment, physical impairment. Nicolle Wallace of Rich, White Liberal, Wine Mom Story Hour on MSNBC, spent 12 and a half minutes on one day, complaining about that wondering, oh, my gosh, there is something afoot here. The White House, this phrase that they workshopped here is a complete flop.
CORKE: Yes. Yes, I love that. Workshop. Amber, before you weigh in, I want you to listen to this montage of sound about cheap fakes. Listen.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Liberal Pundits Parrot “Cheap Fake” Talking Point]
NICOLLE WALLACE: Cheap fakes, videos of real events that are intentionally manipulated to fool viewers.
JOY REID: This is fake. This is fake.
SCARBOROUGH: They are only helping Joe Biden. They are only lowering expectations. Mainstream media outlets are now all in on the lies.
HOWARD KURTZ: I find what Barack Obama did, inexplicable, because he knows narrative that is built up around his former vice president, and yet, everything you saw there was real, not one second was altered.
CORKE: Howie nails it, not one second.
AMBER DUKE: Oh, it’s incredible, this cheap fake term. I guess, they can’t say deep fake, because that implies that there was some sort of A.I. manipulation of the video. So, they have come up with cheek fake – cheap fake, which just means that it’s a video that makes Joe Biden look bad and – and to be honest, this is really so desperate from the White House and from the Biden campaign to really tell people to not believe their own lying eyes.
CORKE: Yes.
DUKE: And what was incredible about the Obama video is that their defense was to actually put out their own version of the video that conveniently zoomed out to about 1000 yards at that exact moment that Obama was grabbing Biden’s wrist and leading him off stage. But we are the ones with the cheap fakes.
CORKE: You are hilarious. I want to share this. This is a New York magazine cover. Very interesting. It says, they’re attacking Republican women, and as you can see the tagline there, "Are Republican Women, OK?". And what they are really doing, it seems to me, Curtis, is they are suggesting that if you are a Republican woman, you’re either crazy, or somehow you just don’t get it. Your thoughts.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: New York Magazine Attacks Republican Women]
HOUCK: Yeah. I mean, this is the magazine and the party where they don’t even know what an actual woman is. They’re constantly redefining –
CORKE: Touche.
HOUCK: – yeah, I was gonna say – women is, you know, all in your mind, it’s all subjective here. It’s a construct. So, for them to make that argument during June, during pride month is just all the more comical. I think the American people see right through this, and that’s why these magazines are failing, just like New York magazine, The Washington Post, they are all going down the tube.
CORKE: Your thoughts.
DUKE: Conservative and Republican women have been dealing with this for decades, where the left accuses us of having internalized misogyny, or as Hillary Clinton said, only voting the way that our husbands tell us to vote.
CORKE: Yes. And I remember that.
DUKE: I’ll have you know that me and my husband voted for different people in the last primary. So, it’s not actually true. But nonetheless, it’s all about just discrediting anyone who thinks differently than the liberal mob. They did it to Melania Trump, they did it to all of the impressive White House staffers under the former President Donald Trump, and they will continue to do it because it’s a convenient way to just attack their political opponents.
CORKE: What’s interesting to me is they do this and they know what they are doing. This is an intentional obfuscation of your ability to say, these are the facts, my groceries are higher, my gas prices are higher, my home heating is higher, there is more crime. They can make these decisions on their own, they don’t need to be told how to vote or how not to vote. It’s kind of silly. Amber and Curtis, thank you both. We appreciate that.
DUKE: Thank you.
HOUCK: Thanks, Kevin.
CORKE: Thank you, guys.
(….)
11:51 p.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Presidential Parameters; Should Trump Have Agreed to CNN’s Debate Rules?]
CORKE: And we’re back with the Nightcap crew: Ashley Strohmier, Curtis Houck, Carl DeMaio, Sonja Shaw, Lydia Moynihan, and Jason Chaffetz. Tonight’s topic, presidential parameters. We are less than 10 days away from the first 2024 presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. CNN releasing new details on the parameters. No opening statements. OK. Muted microphones. No notes. No live audience. So, our question tonight, should former President Trump have so quickly agreed to debate with arguably partisan moderators and biased rules? And what is a rule that Mr. Trump should have, say, countered before accepting? I think it’s a great question.
(….)
11:53 p.m. Eastern
CORKE: Curtis.
HOUCK: Yes, I think for the president – or President Trump needs to have Joe Biden stand. Joe, this whole discussion about maybe they sit is totally ridiculous. For Donald Trump the bigger issue is the biased moderators. Jake Tapper tonight, he said, “we’re fighting for legitimacy, fighting for the facts and truth every day, we step up to the plate” in an event honoring the late New York Times columnist David Carr. So, yes, that’s just one example of the biased moderators with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash that he needs to watch out for. The rules? Not really.
