Page 72 of 107 Days

Democracy is complicated. And some days are more complicated than others.

That day, Mark Cuban was traveling with me to speak about entrepreneurship at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

As we approached the campus, Gaza protesters held signs saying: KILLER KAMALA .

Later, at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, it was: NO CEASEFIRE?

NO VOTE . And then, in the middle of an upbeat rally in the university gym, there were two antiabortion protesters.

I was in the middle of my speech, laying out Trump’s direct responsibility for the repeal of Roe , when I heard cries of “Liar! You’re lying!

” I smiled in the direction of the hecklers.

“Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally,” I said.

“I think you meant to go to the smaller one down the street.” The audience roared with laughter.

Later, the two juniors would go on Fox they can say whatever they believe to be true. It’s a democracy.

But it becomes a danger to democracy when powerful news organizations, who should be in the business of supplying facts, instead distort them for partisan reasons. Because of that Fox & Friends segment, it is now an internet “fact” that I ejected two young people from my rally for praising God.

The false rally narrative fed neatly into another line of attack Fox had been running that week: that I had dissed the Catholic Church by not attending the Al Smith Dinner.

This annual white-tie event in New York in support of Catholic charities has traditionally been a good-humored affair where opposing politicians gently roast each other.

Trump broke with that tradition when he delivered an unfunny and mean-spirited diatribe about Hillary Clinton, his fellow guest, in 2016.

He was booed, a first in the history of the dinner.

His rude behavior didn’t determine my decision not to attend in person.

With just over two weeks to the election, I simply didn’t want to be in a solidly Democratic state when I could be campaigning in a swing state.

So my team had discussed with the dinner organizers that I would make a video instead, and they were agreeable.

I did a comic bit with Molly Shannon playing Mary Katherine Gallagher, her dorky Catholic schoolgirl character from Saturday Night Live .

I followed that up with remarks about my sincere respect for Catholic charities.

I had worked closely with them in California on issues such as providing relief to unaccompanied immigrant children, victims of domestic violence, and, in my Back on Track initiative, formerly incarcerated young adults.

Fox & Friends didn’t mention that: they made it sound as if I’d shunned the event entirely because of the same anti-Catholic, anti-Christian animus that they had falsely alleged.

Democracy is complicated. It’s also easily compromised by blatant bias, downright lies, and the media organizations that enable them.