Donald Trump accuses Fox News of ‘doing nothing to help Republicans and me get re-elected’

President Donald Trump once again tore into Fox News on Thursday, accusing the network that has featured a bevy of commentators praising his leadership and backing some of his statements on hydroxychloroquine of ‘doing nothing’ to help Republicans.

Trump made the claim in a pair of defiant tweets he made as he was traveling in Michigan, where he toured a Ford plant in Ypsilanti in a critical battleground state that he carried in 2016 where he has sparred with the state’s governor over the coronavirus.

Fox has provided intense coverage of anti-lockdown protests in Michigan that Trump stoked with his call to ‘liberate’ states last month. 

U.S. President Donald Trump visiting the Ford Rawsonville Components Plant, which is making ventilators and medical supplies, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Ypsilanti, Michigan, U.S., May 21, 2020. He blasted Fox News on his way to the plant

The network has recently featured extended Trump call-in interviews on ‘Fox and Friends’ and a special sit-down with the solemn backdrop the Lincoln Memorial. But some commentators have distanced themselves from Trump, as when Fox host Neil Cavuto told viewers: ‘This will kill you’ after Trump revealed he was taking the drug hydroxychloroquine, which is only being tested for effectiveness against the virus.

‘Many will disagree, but @FoxNews is doing nothing to help Republicans, and me, get re-elected on November 3rd,’ Trump wrote. ‘Sure, there are some truly GREAT people on Fox, but you also have some real “garbage” littered all over the network, people like Dummy Juan Williams, Schumerite Chris Hahn, Richard Goodstein, Donna Brazile, Niel Cavuto, and many others,’ Trump wrote – choosing a handful of commentators with Democratic backgrounds as well as Cavuto, who issued an on-air rebuttal after Trump revealed he was taking hydroxy.   

Trump tore into the network on Thursday

Fox News commentator Sean Hannity is a powerful Trump defender

Trump tore into Fox commentators with Democratic affiliations

Trump has called for an ‘alternative’ to Fox, and often calls on OAN reporter Chanel Rion

Fox News host Neil Cavuto took aim at President Trump’s revelation he has been taking hydroxychloroquine as preventive treatment for coronavirus

Trump complained the network, which employs conservative commentators and some Democrats to debate them, of failing to help his reelection

Fox host Tucker Carlson, like Trump, has sometimes referred to the ‘Chinese coronavirus’ – a phrase that puts blame outside the U.S. borders

‘They repeat the worst of the Democrat speaking points, and lies. All of the good is totally nullified, and more. Net Result = BAD! CNN & MSDNC are all in for the Do Nothing Democrats! Fox WAS Great!’ Trump wrote.

MSDNC is Trump’s regular insult for MSNBC. 

Trump’s outburst came hours before Fox released a new national poll showing rival Joe Biden leading him, 48 to 40 per cent.’

The network has a respected non-partisan polling unit, but Trump regularly attacks it when polls show him down. 

Trump also ripped Fox three days ago, following Cavuto’s broadcast.

Cavuto, who often defends Trump on other matters, followed up Trump’s hydroxy statement by saying: ‘That was stunning.’

Cavuto continued: ‘The fact of the matter is though, when the president said “what have you got to lose?”, in a number of studies, those certain vulnerable population has one thing to lose: their lives.’

U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a protective face shield during a tour of the Ford Rawsonville Components Plant that is manufacturing ventilators, masks and other medical supplies during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Ypsilanti, Michigan

‘If you are in a risky population here, and you are taking this as a preventative treatment to ward off the virus, or in a worse-case scenario you are dealing with the virus and you are in this vulnerable population, it will kill you,’ Cavuto said.  

‘I cannot stress enough. This will kill you. So, again, whatever benefits the president says this has, and certainly it has had for those suffering from malaria, dealing with lupus, this is a leap that should not be taken casually by those watching from home or assuming, well the president of the United States says it’s OK,’ he added.

The other hosts Trump singled out included Donna Brazile, a former Democratic National Committee chair who signed a deal as a Fox commentator, longtime voice from the left Juan Williams, Chris Hahn, who indeed worked for Sen. Charles Schumer years ago, and Richard Goodstein, a former Bill and Hillary Clinton advisor.

The network broadcast Trump’s remarks at the Michigan plant in their entirety. 

On May 18, Trump tweeted the network ‘is no longer the same’ after Cavuto’s statement.

Trump tweeted Monday night: ‘@foxnews is no longer the same. We miss the great Roger Ailes. You have more anti-Trump people, by far, than ever before. Looking for a new outlet!’ Ailes, former CEO Fox News, resigned in July 2016 amid charges of sexual harassment from dozens of women. He died in May 2017.

 In April he tweeted that he wanted an ‘alternative’ to Fox.