Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) defended the Democratic National Committee’s plan to block Fox News from hosting or televising any of its party’s primary debates ahead of the 2020 election, suggesting the outlet was little more than President Donald Trump’s mouthpiece.
“This is ultimately a decision for the party to make, but I do understand that when more and more keeps coming out about how Fox News was just operating as an arm of the Trump campaign and then the Trump administration, boy, that doesn’t much look like we really have a free and independent press,” Warren, who launched her campaign last month, told MSNBC on Friday. “It just looks like a propaganda machine.”
On Wednesday, the DNC announced its decision immediately following the publication of a New Yorker exposé revealing Fox News’ ties to Trump and his White House. The bombshells included the network’s decision to kill a scoop about the president’s alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, and National Economic Council director Gary Cohn’s effort at Trump’s behest to quash the AT&T-Time Warner merger to punish CNN.
After seeing the story, DNC chair Tom Perez said Fox News was “not in a position to host a fair and neutral debate for our candidates.”
Warren called the merger meddling “about as wrong as it gets,” speculating that “a very serious investigation” is on the way.
While the senator said she understood the DNC’s decision, she noted that as a candidate, there’s value in reaching all audiences.
I want to be able to get out and talk to everyone,” she said. “I want to be in everybody’s living room.”
The DNC has since been criticized by Fox News hosts and others in the media industry, and the network’s senior vice president Bill Sammon has asked it to reconsider.