Fox News host Neil Cavuto directly addressed President Donald Trump during his Monday show to say that journalists weren’t “entitled to praise” him and defended his colleague Chris Wallace, whom Trump insulted on Twitter this Sunday for his interview with House Minority Whip Steve Scalise.
“Journalists … aren’t entitled to praise you. We are obligated to question you and always be fair to you. We will, even if it risks inviting your wrath,” Cavuto said. “You are free to rage. All we are free to do is report and let the viewers decide.”
During Wallace’s interview with Scalise, the Fox News host pushed back on the accuracy of Scalise’s statements and took issue with his mischaracterization of the witnesses who testified in the impeachment inquiry hearings. Trump, in turn, called Wallace “nasty & obnoxious” on Twitter and said the interview was “dumb and unfair.”
But in his Monday segment, Cavuto criticized the ways in which Trump has responded to news he personally doesn’t like as “fake news.”
“What makes something fake news? I would assume that if the news is fake or wrong and the person presenting that news knows that it is fake and wrong, that is bad. But what if the news being reported is accurate, the facts are good, they just sound bad? My colleague Chris Wallace has discovered again the president doesn’t distinguish,” Cavuto said.
“Scalise has steadfastly defended the president on this whole Ukrainian situation. The president likes Steve for that. Let’s just say he doesn’t like Chris for challenging Scalise on that,” he continued. “Passions run deep these days, but facts should run even deeper — even if those facts can elicit wildly different reactions.”
Cavuto also said that Trump was not the first president to say “the media has it out for you,” pointing to John F. Kennedy as another example.
“People will always see things through the prism of their own set of beliefs. I get that. Just like I get plenty of Trump supporters who call me a Never Trumper for getting into matters they don’t like, and plenty of Never Trumpers themselves for giving any credit to a president they will never like,” Cavuto said. “We can’t please all. The best we can do as journalists is to be fair to all, including you Mr. President. That’s not fake doing that. What is fake is not doing that.”
Watch the segment above.