Trump criticizes Fox News ahead of debate decision: ‘Now they expect me to participate!’
Less than a week before the Republican National Committee’s first primary debate
Less than a week before the Republican National Committee’s first primary debate, which is being broadcast on Fox News, former President Donald Trump wrote two social media posts criticizing the network.
Trump’s Criticism of Fox News
In two separate posts to Truth Social, Trump hit Fox News for not showing “polls where I am beating Biden,” using unflattering photographs of him, and having former Attorney General Bill Barr on as a guest.
Trump’s Frustration with Fox News
“Why doesn’t Fox and Friends show all of the Polls where I am beating Biden, by a lot. They just won’t do it!” he wrote Thursday morning. “Also, they purposely show the absolutely worst pictures of me, especially the big ‘orange’ one with my chin pulled way back.
“They think they are getting away with something, they’re not. Just like 2016 all over again … And then they want me to debate!” he added, referencing the upcoming debate, which he has yet to announce a final decision on.
Trump’s Criticism of Bill Barr
In a later post, he wrote, “Why does FoxNews constantly put on slow thinking and lethargic Bill Barr, who didn’t have the courage or stamina to fight the Radical Left lunatics while he was A.G., and who, even more importantly, refused to fight Election Fraud. He knew what was going on, just look at his past remarks!
“Unless FoxNews starts putting the RIGHT people on, their Ratings will never recover,” Trump continued.
Fox News did not provide comment to the Washington Examiner regarding the posts.
Trump’s Decision on Participating in the Debate
The RNC debate will take place on Wednesday, Aug. 23. However, the far and away primary front-runner, Trump, has yet to decide if he will participate.
He has maintained that he should not need to debate because of his significant lead over all other opponents, as well as the fact that he was president previously. “Why would I let these people take shots at me?” he asked in a recent interview.
Both Fox News and the RNC have encouraged the former president to participate. Last month, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel claimed skipping the event would be a mistake for Trump. Executives for the network also reportedly worked to convince Trump to attend during a dinner at his New Jersey golf club earlier this month.
Several of Trump’s primary opponents have also said they want him to appear.
According to Trump’s campaign, the former president is going to dominate the debate whether he attends or not.
“President Trump leads the Republican field by more than 40 points. So he’s going to dominate the conversation at the debate whether he’s there or not. Meanwhile, Ron DeSanctimonious is dropping like a rock and finds himself in third place in many polls with his opponents smelling blood in the water,” Trump’s senior adviser Jason Miller said.
Debate hosts Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier expressed similar sentiments. The former indicated that candidates will be expected to respond to Trump’s recent indictment. Baier added, “He’ll be a part of questioning. There may be sound bites, there may be elements where ‘This is what the leader of the primary says about this issue.’ He’ll be there, even if he’s not there.”
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