If anyone is interested in Donald Trump and tuned into this past Thursday night's GOP debate on Fox News, you witnessed the attempted take-down of the GOP presidential front runner by the very organization that made him the front runner in the first place. As a result, sensing a hoodwinking in progress, Trump lashed out and has continued to lash out against Fox and one of it's debate moderators, Megyn Kelly.
Vox.com's Ezra Klein explains how Fox's build-up and tear-down of Donald Trump goes beyond Megyn Kelly. It's about Fox New's lust for power,ratings and money. Klein also states how ultimately it's a fight that Trump can't win:
On Friday, Donald Trump said that Fox News's Megyn Kelly had it out for him during the first Republican presidential debate. And he had a theory as to why.
"She gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions," Trump told CNN. "You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her... wherever."
So how did we get to the point where the leading Republican candidate for president is accusing one of Fox News's signature hosts of going on a PMS-fueled rant against him? The answer is surprisingly complex.
It's not just about what happened at Thursday's debate. It's also about the way Fox News had, until Thursday, been inflating the Trump bubble, and the broader tension between Fox News's role as a ratings-obsessed cable network, an actual journalistic outlet, and one of the most important institutional actors in the Republican Party.
But let's start with what happened at the debate, and why it left Trump feeling so betrayed.
There's been an internal war at Fox News over Donald Trump
Until Thursday, Fox News had been one of Trump's most important allies. The liberal media watchdog group Media Matters notes that between May 1st, 2015, and July 31st, 2015, Donald Trump was given, by far, the most airtime of any GOP presidential contender, with 31 appearances on the network; Jeb Bush, by contrast, only had 7.
And more than simple airtime, Fox News's hosts defended Trump when the rest of the media was piling onto his more noxious comments.
When Trump said Mexico was sending rapists and criminals into America, Fox News contributor Monica Crowley said Trump "is saying things that need to be said."
When Trump blasted Senator John McCain's war record, Fox News's Steve Doocy said, "if you listen to his comments in total...he's not critical of John McCain the war hero, he's critical of his Senate record." Harris Faulkner said "McCain is not admitting that he kind of started this whole thing."
Erik Bolling, a member of Fox News's 'The Five," said, "I like what Donald Trump is saying, I like what he's doing." On Fox and Friends, Trump was compared to St. Augustine and Mr. Smith from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. And on his radio show, Sean Hannity, one of Fox's key primetime personalities, gave Trump the ultimate compliment. He compared him to Ronald Reagan:
- One of the greatest moments of Ronald Reagan's presidency, he was at Reykjavik. And Gorbachev was pushing him to give up Strategic Defense, what liberals called, derisively, 'Star Wars.' And he said, 'nyet' [no], and he walked away from the table. And eventually it led to peace. That's like Trump's art of the deal.
But there's been at least one powerful critic of Trump at Fox News: Rupert Murdoch. On July 22nd, New York Magazine's Gabriel Sherman, author of a biography of Roger Ailes, reported that there was a schism at Fox News over Donald Trump.
- According to sources, Murdoch has tried — and failed — to rein in Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, who, insiders say, is pushing Fox to defend Trump’s most outlandish comments. This week, Ailes told his senior executives during a meeting that Murdoch recently called him and asked if Fox could "back off the Trump coverage," a source told me. Ailes is said to have boasted to his executives that he told Murdoch he was covering Trump "the way he wanted to."
Murdoch loathed Trump so much that he took to Twitter to make his feelings known. "When is Donald Trump going to stop embarrassing his friends, let alone the whole country?" he asked.
Fox News went after Trump at the GOP debate
Donald Trump's post-debate tantrum has been an embarrassment. But it's not, on some level, a surprise.
After months when Fox News was his main ally, Trump stepped onto the Fox News debate stage and suddenly found the network seemingly committed to his destruction.
The first question was designed to embarrass Trump in front of a national audience of Republicans. Bret Baier began the debate by asking, "Is there anyone on stage, and can I see hands, who is unwilling tonight to pledge your support to the eventual nominee of the Republican party and pledge to not run an independent campaign against that person?"
Trump had already made clear that he wouldn't take that pledge. But Fox News began the debate by making sure every Republican in the country knew Trump wouldn't take that pledge. It was a question designed to embarrass him, and Baier kept turning the screws.
"Experts say an independent run would almost certainly hand the race over to Democrats and likely another Clinton," Baier told Trump. "You can't say tonight that you can make that pledge?"
And, for Trump, it went downhill from there.
Megyn Kelly's first question for Trump exposed his rampant misogyny in front of a national audience. "You've called women you don't like 'fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals,'" she began.
Trump, of course, interrupted. "Only Rosie O'Donnell," he said with a smile.
Kelly wasn't having it. "For the record, it was well beyond Rosie O'Donnell," she replied. "You once told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president, and how will you answer the charge from Hillary Clinton, who was likely to be the Democratic nominee, that you are part of the war on women?"
Trump's answer was a master class in how to excuse sexism and wield the politics of white male resentment. "I don't frankly have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn't have time either," Trump replied.
"Honestly Megyn," he continued, "if you don't like it, I'm sorry. I've been very nice to you, although I could probably maybe not be, based on the way you have treated me. But I wouldn't do that."
It turned out he would do that. But we'll get to that in a second.
The next question to Trump came from Chris Wallace. And here, again, the question was designed to embarrass the candidate.
"Mr. Trump, it has not escaped anybody's notice that you say that the Mexican government, the Mexican government is sending criminals -- rapists, drug dealers, across the border ... you have repeatedly said that you have evidence that the Mexican government is doing this, but you have refused or declined to share [that evidence]. Why not use this first Republican presidential debate to share your proof with the American people?"
But the demolition effort didn't end with the questions. As soon as the debate ended, Fox News cut to a focus group being conducted by pollster Frank Luntz. The entire segment was about how the focus group came in liking Trump and left loathing him. It was a festival of Trump hatred.
Look at the debate from Trump's perspective. His onetime friends at Fox News crafted the questions to embarrass him and then, once he was off the air, cut to a focus group — and who knows if that was a real focus group or actors who were coached on what to say — who told the whole country that Trump had lost the debate.
And there's nothing Donald Trump hates like being called a loser....Continue
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