Senator Bernie Sanders was a guest on The Daily Show last night. Among the several topics briefly discussed was Sanders’ invitation to go on a townhall hosted by Faux Snooz on April 15.
Here’s the segment embedded in a TDS tweet:
To borrow from a diary from earlier today:
The segment began with Trevor Noah asking why Sanders would go on Fox News after the DNC so righteously denounced them. He replied:
Trust me, I know Fox News. I know who they are and I know the role that they are playing. On the other hand, during the last campaign I did a town meeting with a fellow named Bret Baier who did it pretty fairly. He did it straightforwardly, and believe me, we went over the ground rules before and they kept their word. So to me it is important to distinguish Fox News from the many millions of people who watch Fox News.
The diarist in her/his post slammed Sanders for potentially poor judgement of accepting this invitation due to the nature of Fox News and how they parse the video into segments then twist them to fit their propaganda. Daily Kos’ political editor Carolyn Fiddler voiced protestations (to the WaPo): she didn’t understand how anyone could lend such presence to a network that pushes sexist and racist tropes about progressives. Much of that assessment is pretty accurate in how FNC runs their not so “fair & balanced” network, and when WaPo published the report which included Fiddler’s concerns, the story was filed under the topic of entertainment.
However, Sanders is correct in how the last TH played out. Here’s one question that Baier asked Sanders and how it was answered, as reported by the Washington Post:
Can you name a single circumstance at any point in a pregnancy in which you would be okay with abortion being illegal?” Baier asked Sanders.
“It’s not a question of me being okay,” Sanders said, thanking Baier for the question. “… Let me be very clear about it. I know not everybody here will agree with me. I happen to believe that it is wrong for the government to be telling a woman what to do with her own body. I think, I believe, and I understand there are honest people. I mean, I have a lot of friends, some supporters, some disagree. They hold a different point of view, and I respect that. But that is my view.”
Sanders was just getting started.
“I’ll tell you something which I don’t like in this debate,” he added. “There are a whole lot of people out there who tell me the government is terrible, government is awful, get government off our backs. My Republican friends want to cut Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare — Medicaid, education. But somehow on this issue, they want to tell every woman in America what she should do with her body.”
Baier: “I guess the genesis of the question is that there are some Democrats who say after five months, with the exception of the life of the mother or the health of the baby, that perhaps that’s something to look at. You’re saying no.”
Sanders: “I am very strongly pro-choice. That is a decision to be made by the woman, her physician and her family. That’s my view.
For the record, Sanders is consistent with his answer. Nearly every rally or talk, Sanders repeats that view.
My opinion about his upcoming appearance is similar to what The New Republic’’s Alex Shephard thinks in this piece, Bernie Sanders Isn’t Scared of Fox News. Why Is the Democratic Party?
Just as many Democrats believe that appearing anywhere on Fox legitimizes the network’s most offensive bloviators, many believe that courting Trump voters will require legitimizing the president’s views. Both fears are understandable, but quite overblown. If Democrats want to win back white voters—and that’s a big “if”—they need to meet those voters where they are.
The Daily Beast reports the DNC is fine with candidates going on Fox News. Pete Buttigieg did appear on March 17th on Chris Wallace’s show. I didn’t see anyone here hammering Buttigieg (or they did, I may have overlooked it) about it. However, as Shephard points out, it doesn’t make sense to have a debate of 10 Democratic candidates for two nights in a row on FNC:
Letting Fox News host a Democratic debate doesn’t make sense for the DNC, given the network’s antipathy toward the party. But there’s no reason for candidates to cower, either. Pete Buttigieg’s appearance on Fox News Sunday last month certainly didn’t hurt his standing within the party, which has rocketed upward in recent weeks. Sanders’s town hall is a low-risk, and probably low-reward, move. He might produce a viral moment or two. He might even convert an Obama-to-Trump voter or two. But he won’t suddenly make Fox News seem legitimate. Sanders has accomplished a lot in the past three years, but even he isn’t capable of that.
Buttigieg is willing to speak to working class voters, especially in the Midwest and the South. So is Bernie Sanders. You can’t win a general election without some hope that some of the Obama voters who went for Trump in 2016—the indies—could return if they were given something to vote for, which is government being part of the solution to their problems.
Fearless. That’s a trait requisite for leadership.
This is the long game.
Update: if you don’t want to watch Bernie on FNC on April 15, you can watch him in Davenport, IA tonight: