Fox News host Neil Cavuto said there are already notable differences in the way the press have engaged with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden versus how they have covered President Trump the past three years.
Cavuto, who acknowledged Trump’s often sour comments about the media, said if journalists are tough on Trump, they should handle Biden the same, even if he praises the press in contrast to the president.
“It could be the genteel approach that Joe Biden takes,” Cavuto said on his show, Your World with Neil Cavuto, on Friday. “It could be the friendly approach, the fact that he constantly praises the press. I get that. That’s very, very nice, but I do think if you’re gonna be a jerk to one, it might be beneficial to just be the same jerk to all. I’m so used to negative, nasty emails … The ones that say I’m overweight, those bug me, but I dismiss them. I’m just saying that there’s got to be a sense of fair play here. I don’t see it all the time.”
Cavuto also criticized the press’s handling of Biden on Friday in Wilmington, Delaware, saying they threw him easier questions than Trump.
“Whether you like the former vice president, dislike him, whether you like President Trump or dislike him, these were decidedly friendlier questions than the president ever enjoys,” he said on his Fox Business show, Cavuto Coast to Coast.
Trump echoed this sentiment during a press briefing on Friday, saying he watched the media question Biden earlier in the day about the recent report by the Atlantic alleging the president called fallen soldiers “losers.”
“Those questions were meant for a child,” Trump told the White House press corps, referring to Biden’s earlier interaction with the press. “Smiles on faces and reporters, not like you and you. There were smiles on the reporters. What do you think? Take a look at those questions that they ask him. They were not meant for a grown-up. They were meant for a child.”
Biden has recently been more active with taking questions from the press after some pundits noted his absence from the media spotlight.
Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace, who is set to moderate one of the upcoming presidential debates, warned earlier he believed Biden’s reluctance to do sit-down interviews could hurt him during debates.
Francesca Chambers, White House correspondent for McClatchy, also noted there have been fewer opportunities to ask Biden questions, but she would like to see more interaction with the press by both the former vice president and Trump.
“There have been fewer opportunities to ask Joe Biden questions. No doubt,” Chambers said. “And reporters had put pressure on the Biden campaign to put him in front of reporters to start taking more questions from them, and as a result, you’ve seen him on two separate opportunities do that recently. And absolutely, we would love to hear more from both President Trump and Joe Biden about what they would do. For President Trump in his second term, Joe Biden, why he is seeking the office and the specific details into his policy.”
Cavuto double downed on his comments, encouraging the media to be tough all around in the next two months leading up to Election Day.
“Let’s all just go into this whatever our peeves or annoyances that we get just to do our job, to be tough on everybody … and maybe see ratings perk as a result,” he said.
