In an interview with The Daily Beast‘s Howard Kurtz, Fox News president Roger Ailes has some new vitriol for the Obama administration.
Kicking off a laundry list of criticism, Ailes said, “The president has not been very successful. He just got kicked from Mumbai to South Korea, and he came home and attacked Republicans for it. He had to be told by the French and the Germans that his socialism was too far left for them to deal with.”
Reportedly sipping from a “Fair & Balanced” mug, Ailes went on to make a number of head-spinning claims: He denied any connection between Fox’s star pundits like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity and the network’s booming ratings, said Obama “just has a different belief system than most Americans” and described White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs as “a little big for his britches.”
Another highlight came when Ailes claimed that the network’s criticism of the White House is not personal. “We are not interested in savaging them,” he said. “We are interested in the truth. We’re interested in two points of view; most networks aren’t.”
The Obama administration and Fox News have long had a tumultuous relationship. Just this fall, Obama told Rolling Stone he doesn’t think Fox News’ point of view is good for the long-term growth of the country. And Fox News in October tried to educate the president on racial tolerance.
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Read the entire interview here.
Late Update: White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs responded to Ailes’ comments today, telling reporters, “I think if you watch most of the programming on that channel, I don’t think you would find many of those comments surprising.”
