Trump took to Twitter yesterday to complain about the recent Dem town halls on Fox News, including for Pete Buttigieg, who he has taken to calling “Alfred E. Newman.” (Wonder how many Trumpees had to Google that?)
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1130220542538264576
Buttigieg’s town hall was well received by the live Fox News audience, including getting a standing ovation at the end. (It also did well in the TV ratings.) Among his comments included in the NBC link:
“A lot of people in my party were critical of me doing this, and I get where that’s coming from, especially when you see what goes on with some of the opinion hosts on this network,” Buttigieg told Fox News host Chris Wallace.
Buttigieg cited “Tucker Carlson saying immigrants make America dirty” and “Laura Ingraham comparing detention centers with children in cages to summer camps.” Wallace did not address Buttigieg’s attacks on the two hosts.
Carlson and Ingraham both host primetime shows on Fox News and have stirred controversy with their comments. Carlson, in December, said allowing in immigrants" makes our own country poor and dirtier and more divided." Ingraham, in June, said immigrant child detention centers were “essentially summer camps.”
“There’s a reason anybody has to swallow hard and think twice before participating in this media ecosystem,” Buttigieg said. “But I also believe that even though some of those hosts are not always there in good faith, I think a lot of people tune into this network who do it in good faith.”
“And there are a lot of Americans who my party can’t blame if they are ignoring our message, because they will never hear it if we don’t go on and talk about it,” he continued, adding that “we have to find people where they are, not change our values, but update our vocabulary so that we’re truly connecting with Americans coast to coast.”
Now personally, I don’t think Dems should bother with Fox. But if there was a way to do it right, Buttigieg did it. He gave both sides something to think about.
Of course, Fox covered the story not from a straight news viewpoint but from the rating POV and didn’t focus on his comments on their website. Fox also posted a friendly author’s opinion that Buttigieg makes Dems radical and an opinion by MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough (hate the enemy until they say something you like) that Mayor Pete was the party’s future.
I think Pete will be around for a while. Good for him.
