INTEL REPORT--Donald Trump, the president whose petulance reaches further than the ties he seemingly purchased from the estate of Andre the Giant, took to Twitter to vent his frustration after the Democratic National Committee refused to let Fox News host a primary debate, a move first reported by the Washington Post.
“Recent reporting in the New Yorker on the inappropriate relationship between President Trump, his administration and Fox News has led me to conclude that the network is not in a position to host a fair and neutral debate for our candidates,” DNC Chairman Tom Perez said in a statement Wednesday. “Fox News will not serve as a media partner for the 2020 Democratic primary debates.”
Bemused by the DNC’s decision to spare millions of Americans the likely shitshow, Trump issued what could prove to be his biggest lie yet, threatening to deprive himself of a captive audience.
“Democrats just blocked @FoxNews from holding a debate,” Trump tweeted after breaking a sweat changing the channel in the Oval Office. “Good, then I think I’ll do the same thing with the Fake News Networks and the Radical Left Democrats in the General Election debates!”
Trump’s famously sour relationship with media outlets who refuse to air commercials for doomsday meal kits during peak programming stretches back to the nascent days of “fake news,” when Donnie bristled at even the slightest criticism of his then-underdog campaign. Though Trump lacks the power to scrap televised debates outright (the DNC and RNC arrange debates with media outlets upon which they agree through the mutually-sponsored Commission on Presidential Debates) Trump’s weightless threat to the “enemy of the people” underscores his alarmingly cozy relationship with the official spokesnetwork of the world’s oldest Caillou impersonator.
The DNC announced its decision after the New Yorker reported on the close ties between Fox and the Trump administration. In her story, Jane Meyer reported that Fox brass may have fed Trump debate questions ahead of the debates it hosted. Meyer also claims the network killed a story about Trump’s relationship with Stormy Daniels after Fox News reporter Diane Falzone had confirmed the relationship and seen the contract that purchased Daniels’ silence.
In exchange, Trump pressed the Justice Department to pursue an antitrust case involving Time Warner, parent company to rival CNN, according to Meyer.
While the New Yorker article paints a disturbing picture of the chummy relationship between the republican press and their man in office, Meyer’s reportage, when considered along with Fox’s Trump homerism since his victory in 2016, may be gilding the Lllly. With Sean Hannity’s blatant cheerleading, Tucker Carlson’s exaggeration, and the network’s consistent malaise when covering stories that paint the president in a negative light, Trump’s marriage to fox is clearer than a 27-inch Zenith.
Fox News Senior Vice President Bill Sammon praised his debate team in response to the news, calling them “the best debate team in the business” while touting the network’s ability to reach key voters during the 2020 election cycle. While an alarming number of democrats watch the GOP mouthpiece, the DNC likely felt that even the most intrepid of debate crews would be unable to shake the stink of Fox’s opinion-based programming.
Whether right or wrong, Americans on both sides of the political spectrum should rest easier, knowing that we’ll have one less debate to suffer through.
(Ibn Safir is Contributing Editor at The Root … where this perspective originated.)
-cw
