Michael Moore appearing on Fox News is always an exciting proposition, never more so than on a day when he was publicly lauded by Donald Trump. Just a few hours after Trump said he “agrees” with Moore’s assessment that his campaign is “going to be the biggest ‘fuck you’ ever recorded in human history,” the liberal filmmaker sat down with frequent Trump nemesis Megyn Kelly.
The clip of Moore making that statement and others from his new film Michael Moore in TrumpLand has unintentionally become a rallying cry for the Trump campaign. As he told Kelly on Thursday night, the clip that has gone viral in “TrumpLand” was “doctored” so that it cuts off just before he delivers his primary message. “It will feel good,” is the last thing Moore can be heard saying in the clip Trump himself shared. But his next line is, “For a day, or maybe a week.”
“But when you find out that your life isn’t going to get any better under President Trump and will probably get worse,” he continued on Fox News, “that’s when you’re going to realize what the Brits have realized,” referring to the Brexit vote. “If we elect Donald Trump as president of this country, it won’t be the same country after four years,” he added. “I’m absolutely convinced of that. This is the most vile, disgusting candidate that’s ever run for office in this country.”
Speaking directly to Trump supporters on Fox News, Moore said, “I understand why you’re angry. You have every right to be angry. The system has failed you, but he is not the solution to this.” If Trump had watched the film, Moore said he wouldn’t be promoting it, because the message is to get out and vote for Hillary Clinton.
“He’s a busy man,” Kelly joked, before asking Moore to make the case for Clinton. “You like her so much. Why were you against her when she ran against Obama and you were against her in the primary? You liked Bernie. You seem to be a reluctant Hillary supporter.”
Moore said that while he doesn’t like that she voted for the Iraq War and thinks she’s too cozy with Wall Street, the WikiLeaks revelations don’t bother him at all. “I care about women should be paid the same as men, I care about the polar ice caps melting, the big big issues,” he explained. “We have a choice between somebody who is smart, who has a heart, who’s going to stand up for kids and for families and working people and we have a billionaire who just says these things trying to pretend that he cares.”
He went on to compare Trump supporters to “abused” people who sometimes “have a hard time making the right decision because of the abuse, and the attack on the working class has been so intense over the last couple of decades.” Moore added, “You’re not going to be better off with a billionaire who’s never spent a day of his life worrying about you.”
There’s only one problem with Moore’s attempt to clarify his message. If he wanted to reach Trump supporters, he may have picked the wrong Fox News show.