Even though Trump protesters have been assaulted and gotten death treats, journalists have been roughed up and received death threats, Fox News would have you believe that the real victims of Campaign 2016 are Donald Trump supporters on college campuses.
Fox host Brian Kilmeade introduced an interview with Trump supporter Dylan Perera with a whine: “Aren’t colleges supposed to be a haven of open mindedness and tolerance? That’s what we thought. It appears it’s not that way anymore as long as – well, maybe you can be open as long as you don’t vote for Donald Trump.”
Kilmeades claimed, “It’s what students at NYU who support the Republican front runner are finding out the hard way. Students there claim they have faced insults threats, and intimidation from fellow students just for expressing their political beliefs. Some even fear for their grades in some respects.”
Perera complained that he has gotten “mostly negative” reaction from his fellow students when they find out he supports Trump. He claimed one started yelling, “racist” and “fascist” just because his views came up in conversation. He also told Kilmeade that he does not usually wear a Trump hat or shirt, except to political events.
“I want them to really listen to everything [Trump] has to say in context and really understand what he’s trying to say,” Perera added, making himself out as the open-minded one. “And I think if people listen to his full speech they’ll have a completely different view of him.”
Kilmeade played up the victim narrative with his next question: “Does it blow you away for the most part that you are a Republican and you have a certain view and a certain candidate and that you are getting derision because of it? Is it discouraging?”
“I’m gonna hold strong,” Perera said. “But it is discouraging. I know other people are afraid to say anything. Afraid to come out just because they are afraid of losing friends or getting a bad grade just because they might get on the bad side of a professor.” He claimed students won’t say who they support because they might not get a letter of recommendation.
Remember, this is the same network that mocked Emory students for feeling threatened by pro-Trump chalk graffiti being written on their campus. Yet Kilmeade presented no evidence that Perera’s fears were at all justified. We heard of not a single student whose grade or recommendation had suffered as a result of supporting Trump.
Fox News producers didn’t care about the facts. The lower third blared “TRUMP-BACKING STUDENTS MUST KEEP VIEWS SECRET” and “POLITICAL PERSECUTION.”
Watch it below, from the April 4 Fox & Friends.