Samantha Bee has called out South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg and other Democrats for holding Fox News town halls, saying their appearances were legitimizing the network and warning that in the long run, they would look foolish.
“In its entire history, Fox News was never on the level, but in the Trump era it’s become an extension of his administration, or maybe vice-versa. They don’t pretend otherwise, so why should anyone else?” Bee said during a monologue on her TBS show, “Full Frontal.” “At a certain point if you play along with Fox you don’t look bold or bipartisan, you just look stupid.”
“Nobody is impressed by how Charlie Brown reaches across the aisle to Lucy’s football,” she added, making a “Peanuts” reference.
Bee said she missed Buttigieg’s town hall on Fox News Sunday because she had to prepare for the “Game of Thrones” finale. The comedian also approvingly noted how some Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Kamala Harris had passed on doing town halls with the network.
“As Elizabeth Warren put it when she refused to appear on the network, Fox News is a hate for profit racket, which in all fairness is the first profitable racket Donald Trump has ever been involved in,” Bee said.
Though the Democratic National Committee has ruled that Fox News cannot host any of the party’s 2020 primary debates because of their close relationship with President Trump, individual candidates have continued to court the network and their large cable news audience.
And though some are willing to appear, the reception hasn’t always been genial. During his turn with Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, Mayor Pete took an opportunity to call out the channel’s late night opinion firebrands by name and said their public positions made him think twice before agreeing to come on.
“I mean, when you’ve got Tucker Carlson saying that immigrants make America dirty, when you’ve got Laura Ingraham comparing detention centers with children in cages to summer camps,” Buttigieg said. “Then there is a reason why anybody has to swallow hard and think twice before participating in this media ecosystem.”