President Donald Trump lashed out at Fox News on Sunday, accusing the network of giving Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) an easy platform during a government shutdown that has now stretched into its fifth day.
Trump, who often credits himself for Fox’s ratings, seemed furious that the network aired a long sit-down interview with Kelly on The Sunday Briefing, hosted by Peter Doocy.
“Why is Fox News and Peter Doocy putting on Democrat Senator Mark Kelly to talk about, totally unabated or challenged, Healthcare?” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He went further, blaming the network for what he called “FAKE SPIN.”
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“The FAKE SPIN is so bad for Republicans that it is hard to believe that we WIN. It will be very unfair, in the future, when they don’t have ‘TRUMP’ to fight for them. Therefore, we should fix it, NOW!”
The president also suggested Fox owes its success to his presence.
“I’m watching this Interview. It just doesn’t end. Fox should either get on board, or get off board, NOW, but at this point, it just doesn’t make any difference to me. They suck up the Ratings because of us, and then spin them in the Democrats’ direction.”
Trump’s outburst came as Kelly used the interview to call out Republicans over the shutdown. The Arizona senator focused on the high cost of healthcare and warned that removing tax credits could push millions of Americans into financial and medical crisis.
“Millions of people will lose their healthcare or go bankrupt,” Kelly said. “When people lose their healthcare, they die. That is the reality of the situation that we’re in.”
Kelly also urged House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to return the House to Washington to negotiate a bipartisan deal.
“Bring the House back this week and let’s have a bipartisan negotiation about how to bring down these high costs for the American people,” he said.
Doocy pushed Kelly on whether he would side with Republicans to reopen the government.
“As I understand it, the House has already passed the spending bill,” Doocy said. “You’re a moderate Democrat. Are you going to vote with Republicans to reopen the government?”
Kelly replied, “If we could reopen the government and bring down these costs, absolutely. Nobody wants to see the government shut down. We know what happens when people don’t get their paychecks.”
Trump was not convinced. He accused Fox of favoring Democrats and slammed the network’s own polling.
“They refuse to put up Polls that correctly show me at 65% in Popularity, a Republican RECORD,” Trump wrote. “But if I have a fake bad ‘Poll,’ many of which are done by Fox (One of the worst ‘Pollsters’ out there is the Fox News Poll), they put them up immediately, and with gusto.”
The latest Fox News poll, released in mid-September, showed Trump with a 46% approval rating and 54% disapproval — far below the figure Trump claims.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
