Vermont Senator and now two-time presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders drew a distinction between viewers of Fox News and what he characterizes as extremist on-air personalities in explaining why he chose to participate in a town hall style meeting to be hosted and televised by the conservative network, as Common Dreams reports.
Essentially Sanders says he wants to send a simple message to those who voted for Donald Trump in 2016: that Trump lied to them.
“When I go on Fox, what I will say is, ‘Look, many of you voted for Donald Trump, but he lied to you. He told you he was gonna provide healthcare for everybody. Yet his policies are to throw 30 million people off of the health insurance they have,’” Sanders said. “He told you he wasn’t gonna cut Medicare and Medicaid. He lied to you…Massive cuts in his budget for Medicare and Medicaid…Told you his tax plan would not benefit the wealthy. He lied again.”
In addition to wanting an opportunity to lay bare unkept promises Sanders claims Trump has made, what he really wants is a chance to reach an audience that is largely not exposed to more liberal points of view like his own.
“How do you explain [the lies] to people who voted for Trump if you don’t talk to people who voted for Trump?” Sanders asked.
Sanders’s explanation for his reasoning for appearing on Fox News, a network that many of his Democratic colleagues and primary opponents generally avoid, follow his own recent remarks in which he described the network as the “propaganda arm” of the Trump administration. In addition to providing an opportunity to make his case to a wide demographic of individuals who typically don’t hear points of view from the Democratic Party, Sanders also admits that one reason Fox is so politically relevant is that they do indeed have a very large viewing audience.
Bernie Sanders blasts Fox News as mostly a propaganda arm for Trump https://t.co/HzAHEpZgSy pic.twitter.com/RBcNylXvvO
— The Hill (@thehill) April 8, 2019
To simply not communicate with that big a block of voters would be frankly unwise, Sanders says. The Senator has generally committed to focusing his campaign not just on blue districts and blue states around the country, but to the entire nation. This includes those who might not be reached by the typical left-leaning channels where he and his party are most comfortable, not to mention welcomed.
The town hall airing on Fox News will take place on Monday, April 15 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum will host and the discussion will focus centrally on the economy and jobs.