President Obama went out of his way to get in a jab at Fox News during his speech on the economy Thursday.
He blamed Fox News for the supposed misconceptions of Obamacare out there. Apparently, if Fox News just reported the White House narrative of the Affordable Care Act instead of the number of people being dropped from policies and the continued technological difficulties, everything would be dandy.
“While good affordable health care might seem like a fanged threat to the freedom of the American people on Fox News, it turns out it’s working pretty well in the real world,” Obama said.
Naturally, the hosts and commentators over at Fox News didn’t take too kindly to Obama’s decision to pick a fight with the news network.
Greta Van Susteren ended her show Thursday night by addressing the unpresidential statement.
“When leaders blame others, they sure don’t look like leaders. They look absolutely childish.” She said the country needs Obama to “act presidential” and not use policy speeches as a platform “to settle petty scores.”
“Skip the trash talk, it only diminishes the office of the president,” Van Susteren said.
The hosts of “The Five” also mocked Obama’s comments.
“He bashes FNC more than ISIS, and we don’t behead anybody,” Greg Gutfield said. “…The only reason he is coming after Fox News is because we are the only network that actually tries to challenge him.”
The hosts also couldn’t believe that the line was written in the speech and was not an off-the-cuff remark.
Dana Perino, who worked as George W. Bush’s press secretary for a few years, said if anyone had tried to work in a dig at MSNBC in a speech she would have been “on the ceiling.”
“Here’s the thing, President Bush never would have said it,” Perino said.
But at least one Fox News host is letting the words roll right off his back. In fact, Chris Wallace told “Fox and Friends” that he considers it “a badge of honor.”
“Listen, I don’t know why anybody would be upset about that. It’s kind of a badge of honor,” Wallace said. “First of all, I think it’s fair game. We’re big boys. We have been very critical of the president and Obamacare and I think rightly so. It’s not like we think there is anything wrong with our reporting. The president is trying to gin up his base, about a month before the election, he calls us out. We should view it as a badge of honor.”
