Sen. Elizabeth Warren refused to do a town hall with Fox News, calling the cable news network a “hate-for-profit racket” that caters to racists and conspiracy theorists.
The network is “designed to turn us against each other, risking life and death consequences, to provide cover for the corruption that’s rotting our government and hollowing out our middle class,” the Massachusetts Democrat said in a series of tweets Tuesday.
Several of her 2020 Democratic presidential rivals have gone the other route.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg have already participated in town halls with the network’s news reporters. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., has one scheduled for next month. Several other candidates have also expressed interest.
Warren said Democrats’ participation in Fox News events helps the network financially, but invited the network to attend any of her events on the campaign trail.
“Fox News is welcome to come to my events just like any other outlet. But a Fox News town hall adds money to the hate-for-profit machine. To which I say: hard pass,” she wrote.
[Read more: DNC spurns Fox News for chance to hold 2020 presidential debate]
I love town halls. I’ve done more than 70 since January, and I’m glad to have a television audience be a part of them. Fox News has invited me to do a town hall, but I’m turning them down—here’s why…
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 14, 2019
Hate-for-profit works only if there’s profit, so Fox News balances a mix of bigotry, racism, and outright lies with enough legit journalism to make the claim to advertisers that it’s a reputable news outlet. It’s all about dragging in ad money—big ad money.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 14, 2019
Here’s one place we can fight back: I won’t ask millions of Democratic primary voters to tune into an outlet that profits from racism and hate in order to see our candidates—especially when Fox will make even more money adding our valuable audience to their ratings numbers.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 14, 2019
I’ve done 57 media avails and 131 interviews, taking over 1,100 questions from press just since January. Fox News is welcome to come to my events just like any other outlet. But a Fox News town hall adds money to the hate-for-profit machine. To which I say: hard pass.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 14, 2019
