A "Democrat voter" that Fox News invited to discuss former President Donald Trump's Iowa town hall is actually a "politically homeless," anti-vaccine activist who has said Democratic candidates "are an automatic no-no for me" and that she was "voting down ballot Republican" in last year's midterm elections, The Daily Beast reports. The voter, Stephanie Edmonds, appeared on a "Fox & Friends"-hosted panel of six voters on Wednesday morning about Trump's Tuesday night event. Afterward, liberal watchdog Media Matters for America revealed that Edmonds, the panel's alleged lone Democrat, is a political activist who has publicly rebuked Democrats for years.
Co-host Ainsley Earhardt introduced Edmonds as "undecided" and possibly "leaning a little bit toward Trump," saying to Edmonds "I know you’re a Democrat” before asking her how she's feeling after watching the town hall. With a graphic describing her as a "Democrat voter," Edmonds then accused Trump of socialism for helping to develop COVID vaccines during the height of the pandemic. “He teed up a socialist vaccination program that then led to mandates, which caused people like me and thousands of other teachers to lose their jobs,” Edmond, who lost her job for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, said before plugging a documentary she's making about the 2020 lockdowns.
Though she added that “Democrats like me are fleeing from the Democratic Party,” Edmonds has previously been very vocal about how she is more Libertarian and only registered as a Democrat because she resides in a very blue district. Earhardt even referenced that aspect of Edmonds' political identity directly during a Sept. 28 voter panel on the show, Media Matters reported. Fox News has previously misrepresented on-air guests, according to the Daily Beast, having presented GOP activists simply as "concerned parents" and Republican political candidates as merely local business owners.
