July 12, 2024

Fox’s Racist, Sexist Attacks on Kamala Aren’t Landing. Yet.

The network that perfected the Hillary supervillain has a Kamala problem.

    Kat Abughazaleh

An image of Vice President Kamala Harris layered over a wall of headlines that visualize the depraved attacks against her. One of the headlines reads: America may soon be subjected to the country’s first DEI president: Kamala Harris. Another headline says: Newsmax’s Sebastian Gorka on Kamala Harris: “She's a DEI hire. She's a woman. She's colored.”

Mother Jones; ZUMA

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“Cackling,” “ho,” “ditzy,” “bimbo,” “DEI Vice President.”

These are the classy terms right-wing media has used to caricature Kamala Harris over the last four years. Following President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance, the possibility of a Kamala takeover has jumped from a fever-dream conspiracy theory on right-wing airwaves to a real possibility, leaving right-wing media scrambling. As journalist Kat Abughazaleh dissects in her debut video essay for Mother Jones, the usual misogynistic tricks aren’t cutting it—at least when compared to their multi-decade propagandistic masterpiece: Hillary Clinton, Empress Dowager of Evil. Have the usual Fox-type commentators shot themselves in the foot and inadvertently made Kamala even more resilient? 

“The national electorate isn’t already primed to turn against her with Pavlovian ease,” Kat explains. “They don’t have a trigger phrase like Benghazi or a sticky nickname like Crooked Hillary.”

Yes, Harris endures an enormous amount of racist, sexist bullshit from Fox News and the far-right noise machine. And if there’s one thing to be said about right-wing media, it’s that it can adapt, and adapt fast. But after Harris’ four years as vice president, the right’s attacks on her as a so-called “DEI Vice President” are still falling short of the toxic misogyny that helped Donald Trump win the 2016 election. In this video, Kat outlines right-wing media’s favorite jabs against Harris, how they differ from their endless campaign against Hillary, and why they are now firing on all cylinders to reinvent the Kamala narrative for their viewers before it’s too late.

Top illustration: Mother Jones; Lawrence Jackson/White House/Planet Pix/Zuma; Fox News; Media Matters for America

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Investigative journalism, like the story you just read, takes time to do. Months of research. Weeks of writing, editing, and fact checking—and putting together the photography, art, video, and audio that tell the stories in a new way, illuminating new perspectives and voices

We can afford to take that time because we don’t report to an oligarch or corporation with a special agenda. We report to you, and for you. That’s why we unabashedly pursue the truth and relentlessly shine a light into the darkness.

In this month’s Summer Membership Drive, we’ve got to raise $200,000 to support more crucial investigations. This is a pivotal moment in our nation, with democracy on the line, and we can only do this work because readers like you step up. Every donation, of any amount, makes a difference here. We cannot do this work without you.

So, we’re asking: Will you support independent journalism that demands those in power answer for their actions?

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