Trump Sulks Over Pete Buttigieg Getting ‘Fox News’ Airtime, But Buttigieg Couldn’t Care Less: ‘I Don’t Care’
Donald Trump is evidently displeased by the decision of Fox News to give more airtime to his potential Democratic challengers. The conservative cable news network, which has often been criticized for not giving enough airtime to Democratic contestants, seems to have taken a conscious decision not to do so this upcoming election cycle. The town hall conducted by Bernie Sanders, which generated a lot of views, is a case in point.
To this end, Fox News decided to invite another Democratic candidate, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who has seen his stock rise within the Democratic voter base over the last couple of months. Buttigieg attended a town hall meeting presided by Fox News host Chris Wallace, where the young Democrat answered a range of questions from his policy ideas to his beliefs about the current political setup in America.
Not surprisingly, the president wasn’t impressed. Not known for hiding his admiration of the cable news network, Donald Trump was however not best pleased with Fox’s decision to give Buttigieg so much airtime.
“Hard to believe that @FoxNews is wasting airtime on Mayor Pete, as Chris Wallace likes to call him,” Trump tweeted on Sunday.
“Fox is moving more and more to the losing (wrong) side in covering the Dems.”
Trump went on to say that he had never heard good things about himself from Chris Wallace. When Pete Buttigieg was asked about his opinion on Trump’s comments, the Sound Bend mayor’s response was sharp.
“I don’t care,” Buttigieg told Wallace, suggesting that the American media’s obsession with Donald Trump was too much.
The Democratic candidate went on to say that Trump’s online behavior was “grotesque,” adding that “it is the nature of grotesque things that you can’t look away.”
By all accounts, it was a successful town hall meeting for an openly gay contestant speaking with core conservative voters. Some media outlets reported that the South Bend mayor received a standing ovation at the end of his conversation, surprising even host Chris Wallace.
“Wow, a standing ovation,” Wallace can be seen saying as the crowd all around him stands up to applaud the young Democrat in the video below.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg was virtually unknown on the national stage until he appeared in a CNN town hall event. Tonight, he's on Fox News.
Join us at 7 p.m. ET for live analysis, in the NYTimes app or on https://t.co/Z2REl4XUJA. pic.twitter.com/QR9D4YdgAq
— NYT Politics (@nytpolitics) May 19, 2019
Pete Buttigieg Gets Standing Ovation at End of Fox News Town Hall, Surprising Chris Wallace https://t.co/umsBxi5h8v pic.twitter.com/SU6G9RpwCE
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) May 20, 2019
Earlier, as reported by The Inquisitr, Pete Buttigieg had called on his Democratic colleagues to appear on Fox News shows, saying it was important that Democratic candidates reached out to conservative voters through the news network. If not, Buttigieg warned, it will be the hosts who will do the talking for them.
“If we don’t show up, the conservative media will tell our side of the story for us,” he had said.
