Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand have scheduled Fox News town halls in the near future. Julian Castro is reportedly in the process of scheduling one and more candidates are considering it.
According to a May 2 report from Axios, Klobuchar’s town hall will be Wednesday, May 8, Buttigieg’s will be Sunday, May 19, and Gillibrand will be Sunday, June 2.
Axios also reported last week that Julián Castro is “in the process of scheduling” a town hall, Sen. Cory Booker is “considering one” and Beto O’Rourke is “willing to appear” on the network.
The Daily Beast reported last month that Rep. Eric Swalwell’s campaign “expect[s] to start discussions with the network soon” to set a time and place for a town hall; and Rep. Tim Ryan’s campaign “has reached out proactively” to Fox to do a town hall.
One likely reason Democrats are lining up to do this is because Sanders’ was a big ratings success.
We previously reported that Klobuchar’s town hall will be held in Milwaukee and, like Sanders’ town hall, is to be hosted by Fox anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.
As Pod Save America’s Dan Pfeiffer noted, these Fox town halls may well benefit individual campaigns but they damage larger Democratic and progressive efforts. That’s because the town halls give Fox New undeserved legitimacy. I’ll have more on this in my next post. Meanwhile, watch part of Pfeiffer’s comments in the Media Matters clip below, from the April 17, 2019 Pod Save America (published April 18, 2019).
Republished with permission from Newshounds.us
