A journalist from the far-right news outlet The Post Millennial told Fox News’ Jesse Watters on Wednesday night that she was assaulted by an “antifa-affiliated protester” during a protest in Portland, adding that “the Trump administration is absolutely correct in deploying federal troops” to the city.
Sporting a black eye that she says was a result of the clash, Katie Daviscourt stated that “several blocks” of Portland are now “completely controlled by antifa-affiliated protesters who harass, assault, and threaten anyone who they perceive to be a threat to their cause,” insisting that Portland police have “completely abandoned the zone.”
Daviscourt’s appearance on Fox News comes as right-wing media have spent recent weeks describing Portland as a “war zone” amid the White House’s push to deploy American soldiers into Democratic-run cities, purportedly to crack down on “out-of-control” violent crime.
Meanwhile, following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and the shooting at a Texas ICE facility, President Donald Trump has also issued an executive order designating antifa – a left-wing protest culture and ideology in opposition to fascism – as a “domestic terrorist organization.” He also released a memo calling for the federal government to use the Joint Terrorism Task Force to “investigate, prosecute, and disrupt entities and individuals engaged in acts of political violence.”
Before bringing on Daviscourt on Wednesday night, Watters aired footage of the Post Millennial reporter’s encounter with an unnamed and masked protester near the Portland ICE facility earlier this week. The demonstrator can be seen waving a Palestinian flag, which apparently struck Daviscourt in the face at one point.
According to the footage provided by Daviscourt, a “dialogue liaison officer” with the Portland Police Department – who was monitoring the demonstration – confronted the suspect about the alleged assault. The suspect refused to talk to the officer and ran off when told she was being detained.
“The DLO is a sworn PPB member but is in the role of a liaison and cannot get involved in enforcement action. However, he followed the suspect north on South Moody Avenue while calling in additional police resources,” a press release from the police department stated. “The Dialogue Officer attempted to talk to the suspect to hear her side of the story. She would not stop, so the DLO told her she was being detained. She refused the lawful police order to stop and she fled.”
After airing more footage from Daviscourt in which she claimed the protester took refuge in an “antifa safe house,” Watters turned to his guest while also linking the alleged attack to the transgender community.
“Katie ended up with a black eye, courtesy of ‘trantifa.’ They/them still on the loose,” he snarked, adding: “That is quite a shiner. Are you all right?”
Acknowledging her black eye, Daviscourt said that this is “what it’s been like covering Portland for the past four months,” asserting that it has devolved into “complete lawlessness” while praising the Trump administration for deploying 200 National Guard troops to the city.
“Portland Police has completely abandoned this zone. They refuse to go in, and everyone that shows up is on their own,” she declared, noting that she was disappointed in local law enforcement for not detaining and arresting the suspect.
“So that is what it’s like on the ground here in Portland, and it’s time for a federal crackdown. The Trump administration needs to start treating antifa like ISIS, the terrorists that they are, and put an end to them here for good,” she fumed.
In a separate interview with MAGA provocateur Jack Posobiec, Daviscourt said that the “antifa-affiliated subject” had approached her and swung her flag pole “like a baseball bat and directly hit my eye.” Posobiec, who was interviewing her from the studio of Kirk’s podcast, asserted that the protester was attempting to permanently disable her.
“So she was trying to blind you. She was actually trying to blind you, and you know, a flag pole like that to the ocular socket, I mean, your brain is right there,” he suggested. “There are serious – very, very serious injuries that could happen, and look, I’m sitting here in the Charlie Kirk studio. We all know how serious these things can get.”
The president has become fixated on Portland in recent weeks, despite the city having a much lower violent crime and murder rate than other large cities that he’s threatened with military and federal intervention.
Additionally, the number of protestors at the Portland ICE facility have been relatively small, with Politico stating “no more than a few dozen demonstrators have been present late at night.”
Over the weekend, Trump announced that he had directed recently rebranded Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to “provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland” in order to protect “ICE facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists,” all while “authorizing Full Force, if necessary.”
This announcement came weeks after Trump first threatened to send the military to Portland, noting that he had added them to his list on September 5 due to what he had seen on television. In the days prior, beginning with footage that Daviscourt had obtained of an anti-ICE protest in Portland, Fox News had amplified the narrative that the city was out of control and ICE agents were under attack.
“I’ve never seen a city like this… Is this in America?” Watters said the day before Trump’s comment. “I would send them to Portland, but I would send them anywhere.”
In the following weeks, while largely repurposing years-old footage of fiery protests in the summer of 2020, Fox News and other MAGA media outlets continued to hammer away at the talking point that Portland was “under siege” and required immediate federal intervention.
Seemingly acknowledging the Fox News-Trump feedback loop, the president recounted his conversation with Oregon Governor Tina Kotek in a Sunday morning interview with NBC White House Correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, which followed his announcement of troop deployments.
“I spoke to the governor, she was very nice,” Trump said. “But I said, ‘Well wait a minute, am I watching things on television that are different from what’s happening? My people tell me different.’ They are literally attacking and there are fires all over the place…it looks like terrible.”
A lawsuit filed by Oregon and Portland against the Trump administration to block the “illegal” deployment also draws a connection between Fox News and the president’s decision to send in the National Guard. It notes that just before Trump began turning his attention to the city, Fox News “aired a report on Portland ICE protests that included misleading clips from Portland protests in 2020.”
