As a wildly successful DNC closed, Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier ignored the crazy, weird Trump lies as they did their best to keep Trump on a winning message.

Balloons were still falling after Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech at the DNC last night, when Fox’s favorite felon, who lost badly to her in the ratings, called in to attack it.

Clearly, Trump’s advisors wanted him to talk policy differences. Yet he couldn’t do so without whining and lying.

First, the whining: "Why she didn't do the things that she's complaining about?" Trump complained. "She could've done it three and a half years ago, she could do it tonight by leaving the auditorium and going to Washington, D.C. and closing the border. She doesn't need a bill," he said. He did not mention what he would do, instead, Probably because Project 2025, which he pretends he doesn’t support, is quite unpopular.

Then, the lying: "She didn't talk about 70% of our people are living in poverty," Trump said. FACT CHECK: The U.S. poverty rate in 2022 was 11.5%.

“Ultimate journalists” Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum did not say a word to correct that whopper.

“Other than that, it was a nice-looking room,” Trump joked at the end of his anti-DNC rant. Baier and MacCallum chuckled appreciatively.

Then came more lies the two “journalists” did not correct. Trump claimed Harris “knows I have nothing to do with Project 25." FACT CHECK: Trump’s connections to Project 2025 are multiple and obvious.

"A group of people got together, they did a thing I haven't even seen it, I don't want to see it," Trump added which, given how lazy he is, could be true. He boasted that he lowered taxes and falsely accused Harris of raising taxes.

Harris had just said in her speech that she plans to give a tax cut to the middle class. Trump has promised tax cuts that would predominantly benefit the wealthiest. He has also proposed tariffs. The Peterson Institute for International Economics says they would “reduce after-tax incomes by 3.5 percent for those in the bottom half of the income distribution and cost a typical household in the middle of the income distribution about $1,700 in increased taxes each year."

Think Baier or MacCallum pointed that out and kept their viewers from being duped? Of course they didn’t.

So Trump continued ranting and lying: "I lowered taxes, she's raising taxes. She's going to give a tax increase of four to five times what people and companies are paying right now. The country will go into a depression if they do it," Trump raved. "She's a Marxist with open borders. … She didn't talk about the $35 trillion which I was going to start paying off with LIQUID GOLD that we have right under our feet. … She wants to raise the taxes on corporations, what they're going to do is pick up and move to another country." 

FACT CHECKS: Harris plans to raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, a plan the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said would reduce the U.S. deficit by $1 trillion over a decade. Trump, on the other hand, increased the national debt by $8.18 trillion or 40.43%.

We’ve reported many times about conservatives and Fox Newsies begging Trump to stay on message and talk policy instead of personal insults. Here, Baier did his best to get Trump to counter Harris more on immigration. First, he gave Trump the opportunity to respond to Harris’ claim in her speech last night that she would sign the bipartisan immigration bill Trump killed.

Even then, Trump had trouble staying on message. "Number one, debate on September 4 at Fox, and she turned it down because as you know, Bret, I was willing to debate with you and Martha." He said about the upcoming ABC debate already agreed to, "I don't like ABC. I think ABC is probably the worst of the group, but I'm willing to do ABC."

“And on the immigration issue?" Baier pressed. He finally saw an issue he wanted to press Trump on. It just so happened to be one of the few that Trump is still leading Harris on.

"The bill was horrible,” Trump groused. “It would have allowed millions of people to pour into our country, would've been horrible. It was a horrible bill, it was a joke." FACT CHECK: One of the most conservative members of the U.S. Senate was the lead negotiator of the bill and it was endorsed by the Border Patrol.

"She's the border czar,” Trump lied again. "She's the worst border czar."

A long personal attack on Harris as “a horrible, horrible person to run this country,” followed, plus an assertion that “we won’t have a country” if she gets elected. Baier looked at MacCallum as if to cue her to interrupt. After an attempt or two, MacCallum noted Harris’ momentum and asked Trump what his strategy is to rebuild his own momentum.

That must have touched a nerve. Trump ridiculously said, “She’s not having success,” and insisted that he’s leading in most of the polls and in “almost every one” of the swing states. FACT CHECK: No, he isn’t.

Before closing, Baier “asked” Trump if he will “make up with” Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. And surprise! Trump walked back his attacks on Kemp Republicans have complained about and called him a “very good man.” Apparently, that’s because Kemp went on the Hannity show and “said he wants Trump to win and he’s going to work with me 100% and I think we will have a very good relationship.”

Baier also tried to get Trump to talk about his upcoming endorsement from RFK Jr. But Trump went on a rant about how terrible the Democrats were to the other candidate.

So, having done all they could for their guy, Baier and MacCallum tried to close the interview. It took a few tries, though.

You can watch it below, from Fox News’ August 22, 2024 coverage of the Democratic National Convention.