Bernie's Rock Star Treatment During Fox News Town Hall Has 2020 Dems Considering Doing Their Own
After Sen. Bernie Sanders received rock star treatment and crushed ratings during his Fox News town hall on Monday, other Democrats hoping to be the next president are considering their own town halls with Fox.
Despite the presidential-debate boycott against Fox News by the Democratic National Committee, Sanders’ appearance at the event went surprisingly well for the self-described socialist.
Sanders received warm applause from the audience, and Fox News anchor Brett Baier treated the senator to a series of softball questions.
Even President Donald Trump took note of Sanders’ “smiley and nice” treatment on the network.
So weird to watch Crazy Bernie on @FoxNews. Not surprisingly, @BretBaier and the “audience” was so smiley and nice. Very strange, and now we have @donnabrazile?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2019
The Sanders town hall absolutely destroyed the other cable news networks in ratings, according to Fox numbers, and is now the most successful town hall of this election cycle.
Possibly because Fox News bizarrely awarded Sanders with so much positive publicity and almost no difficult questions, other 2020 Democrat hopefuls like South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and California Rep. Eric Swalwell are considering a Fox News town hall.
“Mayor Buttigieg’s team is in talks with Fox News to do a televised town hall, a Buttigieg campaign official says,” NBC News tweeted Tuesday, just a day after Sanders’ Fox appearance.
Mayor Buttigieg’s team is in talks with Fox News to do a televised town hall, a Buttigieg campaign official says.
— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) April 16, 2019
A Swalwell representative told The Daily Beast that “he’s willing to do a Fox town hall, and we expect to start discussions with the network soon regarding a time and place.”
Another 2020 Democrat hopeful, Andrew Yang, who previously appeared on “The Ben Shapiro Show,” also said he would be willing to make an appearance on Fox News.
For what it’s worth I’d be happy to do a Town Hall on @FoxNews or @MSNBC. Or just about any other platform that would reach a large number of Americans. The whole point is to reach as many Americans as possible. 👍🇺🇸
— Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) April 16, 2019
It’s great that some Democrats are willing to give Fox News a chance after the DNC refused to give the network a primary debate. The party already has plenty of discord, but a litte more can’t hurt.
Still, it could be a worrying trend if other Democratic town halls go the same way as Sanders’ did.
Sanders has plenty to answer for from conservative critics, but had easy questions and an even easier audience.
The senator was not challenged by the moderators nearly as much as one would expect from Fox News.
Bernie Sanders spent more than 2 minutes of his Fox News town hall to defend Medicare for All and attack Trump’s Medicare plans — uninterrupted. Not sure I’ve seen that happen on Fox News before. pic.twitter.com/kuONJdbcB3
— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) April 16, 2019
If Fox News is going to host more Democrats, the moderators should challenge them on their ridiculous proposals instead of giving them an uninterrupted platform to spew socialist rhetoric.
That isn’t what Fox News audiences are looking for.
But it’s what CNN and the rest of the mainstream media serve up every day.
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