President Donald Trump lashed out on Twitter Thursday, targeting Fox News, Neil Cavuto, former House Speaker Paul Ryan and more in less than 180 characters.
“Could somebody at @foxnews please explain to Trump hater A.B. Stoddard (zero talent!) and @TeamCavuto, that I won every one of my debates, from beginning to end. Check the polls taken immediately after the debates. The debates got me elected. Must be Fox Board Member Paul Ryan!” he wrote.
The tweet was a response to A.B. Stoddard of RealClearPolitics, who went on-air with Cavuto Thursday during his show “Your World with Neil Cavuto” and described Trump’s own presidential debates as “disastrous.”
After leaving Washington, Ryan joined the board at Fox in March of 2019.
Trump has been attacking Fox News with some frequency lately, and while individual on-air talents — including Cavuto — respond from time to time, the network has not ever issued an official response. In January, he criticized the news channel for booking Democratic lawmakers to appear on shows, asking what “the hell” happened to the network he once praised above competitors like CNN and MSNBC.
In other attacks on Fox News over the past few months, Trump has said the network used to be comprised of “proud warriors” and insulted its polling unit. Fox News stood by the polling unit.
Cavuto addressed the president’s tweet at the end of his show today.
“Meanwhile the president not wasting any time, he heard A.B. Stoddard and tweeted out this, that she’s a Trump hater and that ‘I won every’ debate the last go around. You can read that as well as I,” Cavuto said. “But, just to point out, he did not. When you look at polls that came out from FOX, NBC, CNN, Politico, YouGov and a host of others, the initial read was that he had failed to do well in those debates. He ultimately won, but he didn’t poll well in those debates.”