Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren defended her decision not to participate in a Fox News town hall during her Thursday morning appearance on “The View.”
Warren announced on social media earlier this month that she turned down the network’s invitation, calling it a “hate-for-profit racket.” A number of the co-hosts on the show disagreed with her decision the day it occurred.
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“They have a history of having very successful town halls. Bernie Sanders had 2.6 million viewers. Mayor Pete had 1.1 [million.] I was surprised when you rejected it. Just because I know you are someone who will go to spaces where you’re not necessarily liked,” Meghan McCain began. “I think, with all due respect, it’s a little short-sighted not to speak to the Fox audience. I used to work at Fox News, I don’t think you think I’m a bad person.”
“Why not give this a second look? Because I really do think it’s a mistake,” she continued. “It’s such a huge audience. It’s such an interesting part of the country that watches.”
Warren responded, “So, here’s how I see this. Look, as you say, I want to go everywhere. And look at it this way. I have three brothers, my three older brothers that I grew up with back in Oklahoma. One is a Democrat. Do the math on this. I want to reach out to everybody. I’ve been to 18 states.” (RELATED: MSNBC And Fox News’ Normal Nightly Lineup Beat CNN’S Five Town Halls)
“So, here’s the deal about those town halls: they make a lot of money off those town halls. Right now advertisers are getting really antsy about being with Fox on a regular basis because they don’t want their brands associated with them,” Warren continued. “We do town halls, we bring in a big Democratic audience to watch that night, and then the sales reps for Fox come out and say, oh, look, look at our high numbers, and look how even-handed we are. I’m just not going to give them a full hour to help raise money and help get credibility because they were willing to talk to me for an hour. I’m not.”
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren participates in the She the People Presidential Forum in Houston, Texas, U.S. April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Loren Elliott.
Whoopi Goldberg chimed in, “I just want to — I want to just say we should be very careful sometimes, because you scratch the surface wherever you go and cockroaches run out everywhere.”
Sunny Hostin also brought up respected Fox News journalists Shep Smith and Chris Wallace and said they “are doing very balanced journalism.”