In a last-ditch attempt to distract from his disastrous handling of COVID-19 a week before the election, President Trump has now turned his ire toward his on-again-off-again favorite network Fox News for airing former President Barack Obama’s remarks at a campaign event for his former VP Joe Biden on Tuesday.
While speaking to reporters outside of the White House before departing for Lansing, Michigan, Trump griped about Fox News broadcasting Obama’s remarks during a drive-in campaign rally for Biden in Orlando, Florida.
In his speech, Obama threw more jabs at the President for his unhealthy obsession with media coverage, which included arguing that Trump was “jealous of COVID’s media coverage” after the President complained in a tweet earlier Tuesday that “all the fake news media wants to talk about is COVID, COVID, COVID” amid surging cases nationwide.
Instead of directly responding to the contents of Obama’s remarks, Trump nit-picked at Fox News for airing the former President’s remarks in the first place.
“I only saw he was on Fox, and Fox puts him on all the time,” Trump said. “And they put ‘Sleepy Joe’ on all the time.”
Trump repeated his Biden-centric insult — which baselessly insinuates that the former VP is senile — as he continued criticizing Fox News for not covering the former VP’s surprise visit in Chester, Pennsylvania on Monday afternoon to his liking.
Biden’s remarks outside of a voter activation center in Chester took aim at White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ “deadly admission” that the Trump administration is “not going to control” the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 225,000 Americans.
“What they should do is they should show the pictures of ‘Sleepy Joe ‘yesterday when he rushed to Pennsylvania because he saw that I had 25,000 people at each event,” Trump said Tuesday. “When he rushed to Pennsylvania and he did a statement and he got lost in a fog. They should show that.”
Earlier Tuesday, Trump took to Twitter to complain about Fox News.
The biggest difference between now and 2016 is @FoxNews. They are a whole different deal. Despite this, our campaign is doing much better, with bigger crowds and even more (much!) enthusiasm, than we had in 2016. Big Debate & SCOTUS Win! Real Polls have us winning everywhere!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 27, 2020
And last week, Trump called Fox News’ polls “totally fake.”
.@FoxNews Polls are totally FAKE, just like they were in 2016. I am leading in all of the states mentioned, which you will soon see. I thought Fox was getting rid of its pollster. Sadly, it never happened!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 22, 2020
Trump also suggested on Tuesday that Fox News “show the picture where (Biden) called me George,” referring to a debunked tweet posted by Republican National Committee rapid response director Steve Guest on Sunday accusing Biden of mistaking Trump for former President George W. Bush in a video clip filmed for Biden’s “I Will Vote” concert.
“He thought I was George and I guess he was talking about George Bush, but he thought I was George and they should show that,” Trump said.
Trump then griped that “Fox is very very disappointing” and that “this would not happen with (former Fox News CEO) Roger Ailes.”
Watch Trump’s remarks below:
Trump complains about Fox News broadcasting Obama's speech at Biden campaign event pic.twitter.com/feDBRzd61P
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) October 27, 2020
New headline suggestion
When you’re fighting with your own propaganda network, 7 days out from the election which is your last (worst) chance to avoid Jan 2021 indictments…
So, I think that he is angry that Fox sometimes covers stuff that some people might consider important news? Is that right?
Also, Trump is the guy who called his prime toady Matt Gaetz Rick. Right?
I wonder what the headline writer is going to do when he doesn’t have Trump to promote.
I loved Obama’s comment about Trump being jealous of Covid’s press.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Then fuck off.