Obama Knocks Fox News For Clinton's Loss
âThe Fiveâ Co-Host Juan Williams reacts to President Obama blaming Fox News for the Democratic loss during the 2016 presidential election.
In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, President Barack Obama blames Fox News for Hillary Clinton’s Election-Day loss.
“Part of it is Fox News in every bar and restaurant in big chunks of the country,†the president was quoted saying in the magazine.
But the question is how much was Fox News really to blame for the election results, and how much was it deflection by the president on issues within the Democratic Party? ‘The Five’ Co-Host Juan Williams weighed in on Obama’s comments.
“I’m so impressed that Fox News is so effective and that the president would acknowledge we’re in every bar and grill in America,†Williams told the FOX Business Network’s Stuart Varney.
When Varney questioned him about whether President Obama was ignoring the fact that the Democratic Party also lost 63 House seats, nine Senate seats, 14 governorships and 1,000 state positions in his comments, Williams said he didn’t think the president was putting all of the blame on the cable television network.
“I think that the first sentence in which he said that the Democrats themselves have not been effective communicators is key. And I think the result is what you’re pointing at there, those tremendous losses, down ballots especially in state races now dominated by the Republicans,†Williams said.
On the other hand Williams acknowledged Fox had an impact on the election results considering the number of viewers who tune into the network’s programming on a daily basis.
“I would not ignore the message about the effectiveness of Fox News,†Williams said.
He continued that Democrats are threatened by the network, so President Obama’s comments are part of pattern of attempts to denounce its legitimacy. Further, Williams said Democrats are concerned over Fox’s potential influence in favoring Republican candidates.
“The question is about the facts and I think their [Democrats] view is that Fox puts their finger on the scale. As the president has said, he wouldn’t vote for himself if he watched Fox News,†he said.