Fox News analyst and host Marie Harf shut down former Congressman Jason Chaffetz when he began using lies and a debunked conspiracy theory to attack Democrats on live television.
The segment aired following a televised clash between Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and President Donald Trump in the White House on Tuesday. Trump was pushing the congressional leaders to support funding for his border wall, threatening to shut down the government if they refused.
Responding to the Democratic leaders' criticism of the president, Chaffetz, who served as a Republican representative from Utah between 2009 and 2017, claimed that the political opposition doesn't want secure borders.
"I don't buy the Democrats on wanting to secure the border. They wanted to shut down ICE, they were encouraging on the caravan," the former GOP congressman said.
Marie Harf, who is a political commentator for the channel and also co-hosts a show on Fox News Radio, cut Chaffetz off to point out the inaccuracies of his statements.
"That's not true, neither of those things are true," she pointed out. Although Chaffetz tried to argue that his remarks were "100 percent true," Harf stopped him again to highlight some facts.
"When he says things that aren't accurate on TV, I'm going to interrupt [him]," she said.
"The Democratic caucus does not support shutting down ICE. Individual members talk about it, the caucus does not," she said. Chaffetz shot back saying no Republicans were talking about doing so.
"Second," Harf continued, "the Democratic Party is not supporting the caravan. That is a conspiracy theory that has been repeatedly debunked online," she said. "Do not repeat it for our viewers, please."
Chaffetz continued to push back. "I wholeheartedly believe in my heart …" before getting cut off by Harf. "Well, there's no evidence," she said. "In your heart, you might feel it, there's no evidence … None."
Some right-wing pundits have popularized a conspiracy theory that liberal billionaire George Soros was funding the caravan of Central American migrants, which drew national headlines leading up to and following the November midterm elections. The allegation appeared on right-wing social media accounts earlier this year and was repeated by Trump. Soros is a Jewish immigrant from Hungary, and many of those promoting the false narrative online have used anti-semitic language to attack the billionaire.
Despite being called out by Harf, Chaffetz insisted that the facts she laid out are "just not true."
"We disagree on that one," he said.
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