Fox News Spews Fake Outrage Over Debunked U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Controversy

Right-wing talk radio host Clay Travis defended the fake accusations against the U.S. Women’s National Team supposedly disrespecting a 98-year-old World War II veteran during the national anthem, telling Fox News on Tuesday that the faux story was justifiable because, "American sports fans totally think it’s believable.” Sam Seder and the Majority Report crew discuss this.

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Sam Seder: Here is one of those stories where right-wing media tells a completely fabricated story, and then the Fox people justify it because it WOULD be something that they expect. Uh... what happened? This is featuring Clay Travis. Here it is.

Dana Perino: There's this um dust-up over the U.S Women's Soccer Team. There are some people who think that they there were members of the team who were turning away from the flag and the anthem that was being played there, um, but then the U.S. Soccer Team said, no, actually that's not true, some people were just looking at the different flag that was there. Carly Lloyd, she's a midfielder, she said, "We turned because we faced the flag," and she gave a little flag emoji. I know I watched the video, I feel like maybe, that that makes sense to me. But what did you see?

Clay Travis: Well, first of all, congratulations to 98-year-old World War II veteran who played the national anthem so beautifully before this game. I think he deserves an awful lot of commendation, credit, and applause from everybody out there for what he did in the past and also what he did just yesterday. But I think this is, Dana, emblematic of where we are with sports now — where a huge percentage of American sports fans totally think it's believable that the U.S. Women's Soccer Team would turn their back on a 98-year-old World War II veteran as he plays the national anthem, and not even think twice about it. I, like you, Dana, watch this video, I think it's a little bit confusing they weren't all faced in the same direction, and I think it is unfortunately a sign of where we are as a country that so many of us just presume that that level of disrespect is occurring by our national teams during the anthem.

Bill Hemmer: You can tell the sensitivity on behalf of the women's team by how forcefully they were publicly and resisting the suggestion that there was any disregard for the gentleman with the harmonica or the flag itself. But Clay, I tell you, in Tokyo this is going to be a story, and it's on some days it's going to be a bigger story than the games themselves. Last point on that.

Clay Travis: It, it's unfortunate. Remember the IOC, the International...

Sam Seder: "We're certainly going to try and make it a bigger story."

Emma Vigeland: It's going to be a story because you do, you're driving it forward, right! Sam Seder: "We're gonna make it a big story that's one thing I can tell you, and I will say this: Like, it is really, we may not even have to report it, like I say, it is in the minds of my viewers anyways, so we'll just let them project on to the TV what they want to see so that they can get their hate on. Uh that's why.

Emma Vigeland: No, thanks for previewing your production meeting!

Sam Seder: Exactly. "What can we present that will just play into people's, uh, preconceived notions? I'm so disgusted by the fact that we as an audience is able to develop a strawman, that even though it doesn't appear, it still exists in our minds. So it's more or less the same thing."

And of course, like um, no word as to what they were protesting, "They're just protesting in our mind our strawman doesn't have any agenda he just exists and dances around and then we go, god, look at him dancing, damn!"

Emma Vigeland: "Isn't it, isn't it so offensive that we have gaslit the American public to such a degree that now we're claiming that they're going to see every protest as an extension of the culture war that we've projected onto them. I mean, no agency, no understanding, but that's purposeful of course."