Trump blasts Fox News again, says it's so hard to watch channel working against 'people that got them there'
President Donald Trump has only a few allies in the media and one of them is Fox News. The president is seen appearing more on the channel than any other but of late, he has expressed his dissatisfaction with it as well. On Monday, July 13, the Republican said it has become “so hard” to watch the channel and slammed its commentators. He even alleged that Fox was betraying its own viewers who helped it reach where it is today.
Trump tweeted to express his ire during the day after a busy weekend when he golfed. He posted videos from Fox Business Network commentators Maria Bartiromo and Lou Dobbs. “So hard to watch @FoxNews anymore. They are working so hard against the people (viewers) that got them there,” Trump tweeted. “Their contributors are a disaster, and all over the place. The Radical Left has scared Fox into submission, just like they have so many others. Sad, but we will WIN!” he added.
Trump blasted Fox anchor Neil Cavuto
In late May, Trump blasted the network in a combination of tweets and accused it of not doing anything to help him and the Republican Party win the November election. He said on that occasion that while Fox has some “great” people, it also featured “some real garbage littered all over”. Among those commentators that Trump targeted was Neil Cavuto who did not support the president’s advice of taking hydroxychloroquine regularly as a possible Covid-19 cure. Cavuto, however, found support from his channel.
Earlier on July 5, Trump attacked Fox for reporting on polls that showed him trailing presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and facing tough challenges in the swing states. Firing a salvo after two speeches that were aired live, the president accused Fox of running “suppression polls” by publishing reports that showed him trailing Biden, without giving evidence. Fox reported on polls showing the incumbent trailing the likely challenger by nine percentage points in a polling average. The network’s nonpartisan polling unit also came up with a series of polls that gave Biden an edge in some key battleground states, including some that Trump won four years ago.
Trump tweeted: “@FoxNews gladly puts up the phony suppression polls as soon as they come out. We are leading in the REAL polls because people are sick & tired of watching the Democrat run cities, in all cases, falling apart. Also, now 96% Approval Rating in the Republican Party. Another 2016!”
Trump accused Fox of becoming like CNN
In a tweet posted on July 6, Trump again blasted Fox News saying its weekend afternoons are the worst. He said Fox was becoming like CNN and MSDNC (Fox News for Centrists) and instead advised people to watch channels like One America News and Newsmax. It was unclear which exact segment in Fox News angered Trump for he posted videos of Fox programs that played in his defense.
For example, he tweeted Fox co-host Jesse Waters defending his controversial pardon granted to Roger Stone, convicted of witness tampering and lying to the Congress. Waters spoke about other controversial presidential pardons in America’s history, like the Nixon pardon, President Andrew Johnson's pardon of confederate generals, etc. The president also retweeted a clip of Fox host Jeanine Pirro interviewing one of his ultra loyalists, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz.
Trump, who is obsessed with ratings and often brag about himself having a 90-plus point rating, retweeted a clip from White House official Dan Scavino — an assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff for communications. The clip of a speech by Biden is in black and white with an old-fashioned piano music in the background. “Is this what you want for your President??? With no ratings, media will go down along with our great USA!” Trump, 74, wrote of Biden, who is three years senior to him.
Last month, Fox came up with a story headlined ‘Trump in trouble? Poll numbers have some conservatives nervous’ in which Paul Steinhauser wrote: “But it’s not just in the expected battleground states where Trump is losing ground. Fox News polls released Thursday show Biden with a slight edge in Texas and Georgia, two once reliably red states that were not considered up for grabs at the beginning of the 2020 presidential cycle.”
Quite naturally, Trump is not happy with the media outlet he has trusted throughout.