President Donald Trump lashed out at Fox News again on Tuesday, this time for booking Democratic lawmakers to appear on the network. Trump has criticized the network of that before, but this time he also took aim at Chris Wallace and mused about “what the hell happened” to the cable channel.
“Really pathetic how @FoxNews is trying to be so politically correct by loading the airwaves with Democrats like Chris Van Hollen, the no name Senator from Maryland. He has been on forever playing up the Impeachment Hoax. Dems wouldn’t even give Fox their low ratings debates….” Trump wrote in a tweet.
“…..So, what the hell has happened to @FoxNews. Only I know! Chris Wallace and others should be on Fake News CNN or MSDNC. How’s Shep Smith doing? Watch, this will be the beginning of the end for Fox, just like the other two which are dying in the ratings. Social Media is great!” he concluded.
Wallace, the host of “Fox News Sunday,” was involved in a testy exchange with conservative pundit Katie Pavlich on Monday during a segment on the impeachment proceedings in the Senate. He told her to get her facts straight after she insisted some witnesses had not been called in the trial.
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg appeared on Fox News for a town hall over the weekend. Both he and fellow Democratic hopeful Andrew Yang believe in taking the Democratic message to Fox News’ viewers. Yang even called on the Democratic National Committee to allow Fox News to host a debate, because DNC has, so far, not given Fox News that opportunity.
All three networks have been seeing high ratings during the Senate impeachment trial. MSNBC had the most viewers on Friday afternoon as the Senate impeachment trial picked back up for its fourth day, both in total averages and viewers in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 demographic. Fox News had the most viewers tune in to see primetime analysis and coverage. From 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET, MSNBC had 1.515 million viewers total tune in on average, while Fox News had 1.398 million total average viewers and CNN had 979,000.
The president has attacked Fox News repeatedly over the last year, saying the network used to be comprised of “proud warriors” and insulting its polling unit. Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest attack Tuesday and does not typically comment on Trump’s attacks on anchors or booking choices, but has stood by the polling unit in the past. Anchors like Brit Hume and Neil Cavuto have responded to attacks in the past themselves.