Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade, Ainsley Earhardt and Steve Doocy were forced to defend their employer Tuesday morning as President Donald Trump began attacking the network during an on-air “Fox & Friends” interview.
In one of his final chances to speak to the public and advocate for his re-election as many Americans head to the polls, Trump lambasted the cable news channel for airing speeches from former President Barack Obama: “Actually, Fox puts him on more than anybody else, which is sort of shocking to me because Fox has changed a lot. Somebody said, ‘What’s the biggest difference between this and four years ago?’ I say, ‘Fox.’ It’s much different.”
He kept going as Kilmeade started to interrupt.
“You still have great people. You’re three of them,” he told Kilmeade, Earhardt and Doocy.
Kilmeade continued to attempt to interrupt the president’s attack on his network, saying, “But… but, you know, Mr. President… Can I just say one thing?”
The host finally broke through, saying, “We just want to show both. Unlike other networks, we’re trying to show both sides: ‘Hey, here’s President Trump live. Here’s Joe Biden live.’”
Earhardt said they couldn’t criticize another network while Kilmeade maintained that showing viewers a politician did not amount to endorsing their views. Doocy added, “We report. They decide.”
From there, Kilmeade tried to reroute the conversation so Trump could answer the trio’s original line of questioning about his response to Obama’s comments on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump wasn’t having it. “In the old days, they wouldn’t put, you know, they wouldn’t put Sleepy Joe Biden on every time he opened his mouth. They had other networks for that, frankly, and it was run a much different operation. I’m just telling you it’s much different,” he said before praising all of the network’s leading opinion hosts by name and excluding the journalists from the news department.
He also criticized the network for interviewing Democrats, then added, “I’m not complaining. I’m just telling people. It’s one of the biggest differences this season compared to last.”
Watch part of Trump’s final appeal to Fox News viewers below, via Media Matters.
On Fox & Friends, Trump complains that Fox News airs too many Obama speeches: "Fox puts him on more than anybody else, which is sort of shocking to me, cause Fox has changed a lot." Fox & Friends protests that "we're trying to show both sides … we report, they decide." pic.twitter.com/H0AWUKdrCh
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) November 3, 2020