‘There is a reason why anybody has to swallow hard and think twice before participating in this media ecosystem.’
That’s Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg talking to Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday about the thinking behind his decision to engage in a town hall on the conservative network.
“A lot of folks in my party were critical of me for even doing this,” Buttigieg said Sunday. “And I get where that’s coming from.”
The “folks” he was talking about were the likes of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who just last week called Fox News a “hate-for-profit machine” and said she will take a “hard pass” on attending a town hall.
Then again, Senator Bernie Sanders took part in a Fox town hall last month that brought in more than 2.6 million viewers.
Buttigieg directly called out Fox hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham for their reporting on immigrants, saying that some of the network’s prime-time personalities aren’t acting in good faith.
His comments echoed his thoughts from an email a day earlier. “I strongly condemn the voices on Fox and in the media which uncritically amplify hate and the divisive sort of politics which gave rise to this presidency,” he wrote.
Watch the video:
Before the show, Trump tweeted that Fox was “wasting airtime” on Buttigieg:
Buttigieg didn’t shy away from throwing his own jab at the president. He told Wallace that he understands why people are so interested by Trump’s tweets — because “it is the nature of grotesque things that you can’t look away.”
The crowd gave Buttigieg a standing ovation after he ended the town hall, which included a shout-out to the “Game of Thrones” finale — he says he’s looking forward to seeing where the Arya storyline goes from here.
Read: An estimated 10.7 million Americans could miss work the Monday after the ‘Game of Thrones’ finale
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