2020 Democratic candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) will hold a town hall on Fox News at 7 PM EST on Sunday.
Fox News reporter Chris Wallace will host the event in Claremont, New Hampshire.
Buttigieg’s campaign sent out an email on Saturday night explaining the mayor’s decision.
“I strong condemn the voices on Fox and in the media that uncritically amplify hate and the divisive sort of politics that gave rise to this presidency,” Buttigieg wrote.
However, he warned that left-leaning politicians block out Fox News at their peril.
“If we ignore the viewers of Fox News and every news platform that doesn’t share our worldview, we will surrender our ability to speak directly to millions of American voters,” Buttigieg argued. “If we don’t show up, the conservative media will tell our side of the story for us.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) have also held town halls on Fox while Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has refused to do so, calling Fox News a “hate-for-profit racket.”
Read Buttigieg’s statement below:
Mayor Pete out with a lengthy explanation for why he’s doing a Fox News town hall pic.twitter.com/VtX57kYNcb
— Sam Stein (@samstein) May 18, 2019
That’s nice. Unfortunately, I have other plans. I’ll be curating my collection of carpet lint.
It’s a tough call. I can understand why candidates with lower ratings needing more exposure would want to do this.
I’ll watch because I like Mayor Pete and because I want to see him not take the bait.
So pragmatic over substance. If he is expected to cull votes from the Fox News crowd, he had better be ready to provide a truth and fact injection they cannot ignore. Otherwise he becomes the sound bite du jour for Fox and “friends”. I pretty much expect it to be fail on his part.
“If we ignore the viewers of Fox News and every news platform that doesn’t share our worldview, we will surrender our ability to speak directly to millions of American voters,” Buttigieg argued. “If we don’t show up, the conservative media will tell our side of the story for us.”