Presidential candidates are forced to take their licks from the national news media throughout the campaign trail. Some are more memorable than others. Here are the top seven of 2015.
7.) Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren vs. Bernie Sanders: Both Republicans and Democrats find it useful to attack the news media as either unfair or apathetic to their campaigns, as it often motivates their supporters. But Van Susteren took a moment this month to make sure Sanders is at least being honest if he’s claiming the media is ignoring him.
On her show, Van Susteren responded to a letter Sanders had sent his supporters saying that “big networks … have barely discussed our campaign …” Van Susteren told Sanders to “give it a rest” and said that her show had reached out to his campaign for an interview about 20 times in writing. She said Sanders was “hiding” and only “pretending” to be ignored.
6.) MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough vs. Donald Trump: Scarborough, a Republican, is one of the few national news hosts outside of Fox News to suggest Trump could be an effective president. But the two got into it this month when Trump called into “Morning Joe” to defend his proposal to ban all Muslim immigrants from entering the U.S.
At the start of the interview, Trump went on a lengthy tirade about the Islamic State and the Obama administration’s handling of the matter, before Scarborough, unable to get a question in, cut off Trump and forced a commercial break. It was one of the only instances where one of the more Trump-friendly voices in the media demonstrated a willingness to prevent the GOP candidate from dominating an interview with endless talk of poll numbers and insults at his political rivals.
5.) Female reporters vs. Rand Paul: Almost immediately after announcing his run for president in April, Paul proved he would have a difficult time with the media element of campaigning. It didn’t help that he came off as condescending in two interviews this year with journalists who happened to be women.
During an interview in April with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie, in which she asked Paul about an apparent shift in one of his policy positions, Paul told her she was “editorializing” and told her how he wanted her to ask him the question. “That would be sort of a better way to approach an interview,” he said. In another interview in February with CNBC’s Kelly Evans, Paul at one point shushed her and told her to “calm down a bit there.” Accusations that Paul had a problem with women asking him questions ensued. He denied that.
4.) CNBC vs. Ted Cruz: The most controversial debate for Republicans so far was hosted in October by CNBC. But it gave Ted Cruz one of his most standout moments to date when he assailed the moderators for turning the event into a “cage match” between the candidates. “The questions that you’ve asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media,” Cruz said to thundering applause from the audience, after the moderators had asked a series of provocative questions that, at times, bordered on insulting.
“This is not a cage match,” Cruz said, “and you look at the questions: Donald Trump, are you a comic book villain? Ben Carson, can you do math? John Kasich, will you insult two people over here? Marco Rubio, why don’t you resign? Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen? How about talking about the substantive issues people care about?”
3.) Univision’s Jorge Ramos vs. Donald Trump: Two of the biggest things fueling Trump’s popularity are his hardline stance on immigration and his head-on confrontations with journalists. Encapsulating both was a hostile exchange in August between Ramos and Trump when Ramos, without being called upon, began shouting out questions on immigration.
“Go back to Univision,” Trump told Ramos, who is Mexican. Ramos was forcibly removed from the conference, but allowed back in later to ask his questions. Later on Twitter, Ramos accused Trump of “promoting bigotry.”
2.) Fox News’ Ed Henry vs. Hillary Clinton: For the first few months of her campaign, Clinton made a point to avoid the national media with the apparent intent of coasting as long as possible on the road to the Democratic nomination. Then in August, questions began to pile about her use of a non-government email server during her tenure as secretary of state.
At a press conference in Nevada, Fox News’ Ed Henry pounced, leading Clinton to trip and stumble over rapid fire questions on whether she digitally wiped the server clean before handing it over to federal authorities. “What, with like a cloth?” Clinton said with a smirk. The moment fed into the impression that Clinton was being less than forthright.
1.) Fox News’ Megyn Kelly vs. Donald Trump: It’s been the feud that will not die, beginning at the first Republican primary debate in August, when Kelly confronted Trump with a series of public comments he has made in the past disparaging or making fun of certain women. The Republican front-runner shot back with a threat that maybe he’d stop being “nice” to Kelly.
He followed through, for months now bashing Kelly and her primetime Fox show by way of his favorite medium for trash-talk: Twitter. He even engaged in a short-lived boycott of Fox’s programming. Kelly mostly took the high road, only formally addressing the fight once on her program, vowing never to apologize for asking Trump critical questions. The two are expected to meet again for another Fox debate on Jan. 28.
