Ravish Kumar has released an exclusive report to expose Narendra Modi's Scripted Interview with ANI !

[bhaigan]

 

 

[CaptainMaverick]

Former ESPN host says her Biden interview was entirely 'scripted' by network execs: 'Every single question'

'I was on script and was told not to deviate,' former 'SportsCenter' host Sage Steele told Fox News Digital

Former ESPN host Sage Steele revealed that her 2021 interview with President Biden was "scripted" by network executives. 

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Steele recalled the "structured" nature of the pre-taped interview, so much so that her ESPN bosses handed her a "script" to go off of.

"That was an interesting experience in its own right because it was so structured," Steele said. "And I was told, ‘You will say every word that we write out, you will not deviate from the script and go.’" 

Many of the questions Steele asked Biden in the March 2021 interview pertained to sports leagues attempting to restore normalcy during the COVID pandemic and vaccine hesitancy among athletes and fans. Her interview made headlines at the time when Biden supported the MLB's All-Star game boycott of Atlanta following the passage of Georgia's election reform law.

But everything Steele said to the president ultimately came from ESPN's c-suite.

"To the word. Every single question was scripted, gone over dozens of times by many editors and executives. Absolutely. I was on script and was told not to deviate," Steele told Fox News Digital. "It was very much ‘This is what you will ask. This is how you will say it. No follow-ups, no follow-ups. Next.' … This went up to the fourth floor, as we said, where all the bosses, the top executives, the decision makers are, the president of our company, the CEO, where they all worked."

Steele said she didn't know for certain whether ESPN sent the questions to the White House in advance of the interview but seemed confident that is "what happened."

ESPN declined to comment. 

[CaptainMaverick]

Biden cheat sheet for Iraq PM meeting caught on camera — including instructions to ‘pause’

By 

Social Links forRyan King

Published April 15, 2024, 4:25 p.m. ET

The commander-in-cheat?

President Biden was caught once again wielding a crib sheet bearing scripted remarks to the press during an Oval Office sitdown with Iraq’s prime minister Monday.

Biden, 81, turned to the script — which included an all-caps stage direction on when to pause in his comments to allow for an interpreter to translate — to make his first public statement since Iran launched an unprecedented direct missile and drone attack on Israel over the weekend.

The president glanced down at his script repeatedly as he sat beside Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’a Al-Sudani.

Al-Sudani did not rely on note cards of any kind when he made brief remarks following Biden.

 

[CaptainMaverick]

 

[bhaigan]

Talk about Biden in another thread

[CaptainMaverick]

Joe Biden Rounds The Bases At Trump’s Expense In Softball Univision Interview

The contrast between Donald Trump on Univision last year and Joe Biden on Univision Tuesday was night and day, but the result was still pretty much the same.

Exactly five months after a controversial interview with the 45^th President by Enrique Acevedo, the anchor of Televisa’s  En punto was broadcast on the Spanish-language network, a sit-down with the 46^th POTUS aired. However, while the unctuous November 9, 2023 Trump interview at Mar-a-Lago saw the former Celebrity Apprentice host spouting grievances, stolen election conspiracy theories and self-aggrandizement, Biden went nearly full policy wonk tonight.

Including a stroll through the Oval Office discussing the life and legacy of Cesar Chavez, and a clearly scripted aside that the iconic labor leader’s granddaughter Julie Chavez Rodriguez is chairing his reelection campaign, the multi-channel, multi-lingual Biden special may have sought to distinguish itself as always from Trump. However, the truth is tonight’s interview with Biden was almost equally as softball as when Acevedo spoke with the Republican in his flag filled Florida lair.

There was almost none of the follow-up questions nor challenging of assumptions or assertions that Noticiero Univisión  co-anchor Jorge Ramos would have brought to such an interview with a President. In a tone more morning show than primetime, the highly scripted Acevedo let Biden turn their chat into a series of talking points with a whiff of stump speech.

Mainly prerecorded at the White House on April 3, there was no mention of breaking news like the Arizona Supreme Court’s resurrection of the state’s 160-year old abortion ban law or efforts by English-speaking news outlets to get Biden and Trump to commit to debates. Evergreen in some aspects, if Univision were criticized by Democrats, progressives, John Leguizamo and  many Latino groups for the interview with the divisive Trump last fall, tonight’s Biden interview saw a network that had learned little in the interim.

In fact, exactly the presentation the White House and the Biden reelection campaign desired, the approximately 40-minute presentation saw the 81-year old POTUS flexing his command of his briefs and policies. Healthcare initiatives, education policy, gun control, immigration legislation possibilities and border reform, Congressional realpolitik were among the issues Biden kept in the air, occasionally looking down at notes he was holding.

 

Asked about what he would or could do via Executive Order about the southern border crisis now a bipartisan deal was effectively killed by Trump’s “death grip” over the GOP, Biden replied “we’re examining whether or not I have that power .. we’re trying to work that, work through that right now.”

Acevedo let that go and shifted gears to the role of Mexico in easing migration to the US.

As well as delving into his relationship with Mexican President López Obrador, the need for more aid to Ukraine,  and the retail politics of Latino voting concerns, Biden made news hours before the interview aired with what is his strongest rebuke yet of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Well, I will tell you, I think what he’s doing is a mistake,” Biden said of Netanyahu’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza since the horrific October 7 attack by Hamas that left over 1200 Israelis dead, mass rapes and hundreds taken hostage. “I don’t agree with his approach,” Biden added after months of strong support for the Israeli government. “I think it’s outrageous that those four, three vehicles were hit by drones and taken out on a highway,” the Commander-in-chief declared of the fatal attack last week on a World Central Kitchen convoy that left seven aid workers dead.

Prime Minister Netanyahu and the IDF have said the attack was a mistake and have promise a thorough investigation. The killing of the multi-national WCK workers has increasing aligned governments around the world, including the Biden administration with protesters and others demanding a ceasefire and massive humanitarian relief in Gaza.

Still with all the topics Biden covered with Acevedo the real heart of the Univision interview was Donald Trump.

Responding with “Donald Trump, seriously” to Acevedo’s question of what he considered “the primary threat to freedom and democracy at home,” Biden returned again and again to taking swipes at his predecessor. “Look at the way, when he talks about minority populations or Hispanics,” Biden declared, aware of the potentially millions watching.

In what is certain to be a much closer election than 2020, Biden used the forum to center viewers on the consequences of a Trump return to the White House. “He has a very, very, I think, jaded view of the Constitution,” Biden said. “He made it clear that he doesn’t plan on abiding by parts of it if he thinks it’s not appropriate. And it’s just… at least he’s saying it out loud.”

Near the end of the special, Acevedo asked Biden how he wanted to be remembered whether he wins reelection or not. “I hope my legacy is that I was honest, straightforward and did what I said,” the President responded.

Expect to see that in a campaign ad soon.

[bhaigan]

10 years em chesado cheppukune dammu leni bewakoof PM 

Scripted interview lo pathological lies

[bhaigan]

If you want to spam with Biden Interview I dont care

[CaptainMaverick]

Putin walks away with propaganda victory after Tucker Carlson’s softball interview

It’s evident now why Vladimir Putin granted an interview to Tucker Carlson.

Over the course of the more than two-hour sit-down, the former Fox News host turned online commentator largely refrained from challenging the Russian authoritarian, whose brutal war on Ukraine has led to the needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Those expecting a hard-hitting face-off will have surely walked away sorely disappointed by the long-winded and rambling interview, in which Tucker himself at times appeared lost.

Instead of pressing Putin on the many topics at hand, including credible accusations Russia has committed war crimes and the imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Carlson allowed the autocrat a free lane to manipulate the public and tell his version of history, no matter how deceptive it may have been. At times, between the airing of grievances, Putin appeared to school Carlson on historical events as the host looked on in bewilderment. Or to put it more plainly, Carlson provided Putin a platform to spread his propaganda to a global audience with little to no scrutiny of his claims.

“What you see from watching the first 45 minutes of this, is that this is President Putin’s platform,” Clarissa Ward, CNN’s chief international correspondent, remarked, adding that it was “clear from the very beginning” of the interview that Carlson did “not have control.”

In some cases, Carlson even fed into Putin’s narratives. For instance, Putin advanced an absurd deep state-style conspiracy theory that the U.S. government is not controlled by its elected leaders but by unelected powers at the Central Intelligence Agency who direct the president like a puppet from the shadows.

“So, twice you’ve described US presidents making decisions and then being undercut by their agency heads,” Carlson said after Putin made the assertion, earnestly summing up the Russian leader’s mendacious narrative. “So it sounds like you’re describing a system that’s not run by the people who are elected, in your telling?”

“That’s right, that’s right,” Putin replied.

Carlson never followed up to challenge the absurdity.

It was a massive propaganda victory for Putin, who can — and will – now twist the encounter for his own ends. If there was any doubt that Putin did not view the sit-down with Carlson as a big win, a glance at how his own state-run media covered the affair should erase it. Immediately after Carlson published the chat online, Putin’s mouthpieces rushed to amplify it.

TASS featured the sit-down as the top story on its homepage, amplifying Putin’s claim that Ukraine is an “artificial state” and devoting an entire section of its website to special coverage of the interview. RT, the English-language broadcaster now exiled from much of the Western world, aired significant swaths of the interview on its air.

“VLADIMIR PUTIN’S INTERVIEW GAINS OVER 20 MILLION VIEWERS IN FIRST TWO HOURS,” RT boasted in one on-screen graphic.

None of this should come as any surprise.

While Carlson was once a critic of the Russian government, in recent years he has been far more sympathetic to the Putin-led state, dragging the GOP with him. Carlson’s commentary on Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine has been anything but favorable toward Kiev, with the right-wing extremist even likening Volodymyr Zelensky to vermin last year.

Which is precisely why Putin agreed to the interview with Carlson, while actual journalists who would have pressed the Russian leader on a range of critical issues, have been denied access for years. You don’t have to take our word for it, either. Putin’s own spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters this week that Carlson was selected because he “has a position that is different from the rest” of Western media.

There was one moment, however, in which Carlson did gently press Putin. At the end of the interview, Carlson asked Putin if he would be “willing to release” Evan Gershkovich, the imprisoned reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Putin declined to release Gershkovich now, to which Carlson said, “He’s a kid, and maybe he was breaking your law in some way, but he’s not a super spy and everybody knows that.”

While Carlson did advocate for the immediate release of Gershkovich, his remark did not go over well at The Journal. Ted Mann, a reporter at the newspaper, wrote on X that it was “disgraceful of Carlson to suggest Evan was ‘breaking [their] law.’”

“He wasn’t,” Mann added. “Carlson knows that. Evan is a law-abiding, decent reporter being held hostage for geopolitical leverage. He should be released immediately.”

The Journal also released a statement following the interview.

“Evan is a journalist, and journalism is not a crime. Any portrayal to the contrary is total fiction,” the newspaper said. “Evan was unjustly arrested and has been wrongfully detained by Russia for nearly a year for doing his job, and we continue to demand his immediate release.”

[CaptainMaverick]

Biden continues streak of celebrity softball interviews with Seth Meyers appearance

President Joe Biden speaks to members of the National Governors Association during an event in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough) **FILE** more >

 

By Jeff Mordock - The Washington Times - Monday, February 26, 2024

President Biden is traveling to New York on Monday and will tape an interview with late-night talk show host Seth Meyers, the latest in a series of softball interviews with celebrities as he eschews questions from traditional media outlets.

The sit-down with the “Late Night” host is Mr. Biden‘s first interview since December, when he appeared on comedian Conan O’Brien’s podcast. It will air after midnight on NBC.

 

The president will also attend a campaign meeting while in New York.

---

 

---

Mr. Biden has skipped appearing on mainstream media programs in favor of more friendly show-business-style interviews. He has yet to appear on Fox News, and last did a CNN town hall in October 2021. But he has appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” and “The Drew Barrymore Show.”

Last October, after Hamas’ sneak attack on Israel, Mr. Biden did appear on “60 Minutes.” That was the 81-year-old’s first traditional news interview since June 2023, when he was mocked on social media for awkwardly walking off the set of Nicole Wallace’s MSNBC show before the commercial break.

 

The low-risk conversations with supportive celebrities have been a way of creating positive publicity for the president without running into the danger of a major gaffe. Mr. O’Brien, for example, asked the president about how fast he drove his Corvette and whether he’d be willing to swap hairstyles.

Mr. Biden has granted a sit-down interview to one wire service outlet, The Associated Press. He is the first president in decades who has not sat for an interview with The Washington Post or The New York Times.

 

So far, Mr. Biden has participated in 74 interviews, the fewest of any president since Ronald Reagan, according to data compiled by presidential scholar Martha Kumar. In comparison, Mr. Trump had granted 273 interviews.

[CaptainMaverick]

POLITICS

In defense of the softball interview

JULY 28, 2020By BILL GRUESKIN

When it came to asking the president about his mental soundness last week, which Fox News reporter extracted the more revealing answer? 

First up was Chris Wallace, the tough Fox News Sunday anchor, who said this about the Montreal Cognitive Assessment test that Trump so proudly passed: “I took the test too when I heard that you passed it,” said Wallace. “It’s not—well, it’s not the hardest test. They have a picture, and it says, ‘What’s that?’ And it’s an elephant.”

A few days later, Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News’s medical commentator, asked Trump about the same topic, but framed his inquiry this way: “Presidential health, or health of the candidate, is going to be on the table.… I’ve seen a lot about your health, being in good health. What do you think should come out…regarding Vice President Biden?” 

Wallace’s question may have been more emotionally satisfying, but it was Siegel—a commentator prone to adulation of Trump—who got the more telling answer: a six-minute meander through Trump’s thicket of self-diagnosis, during which the president mentioned China, Russia, Ukraine, judicial appointments, the Twenty-fifth Amendment, and, most notably, his ability to recite a string of five words while under observation by medical experts. The camera, trained mostly on Trump, occasionally cut to Siegel, who smiled sweetly and nodded understandingly, barely uttering a word as the president repeated “Person, woman, man, camera, TV” four times. 

After Siegel’s interview went viral, he went on Tucker Carlson’s show to explain his interviewing style: “That’s been asked of me a lot: ‘Why didn’t you interrupt him on the cognitive question?’ Well, I was brought up not to interrupt people.… It’s a sign of respect.” 

THE MEDIA TODAY: The logistical and ethical challenges of sports reporters’ restart

 

Softball questions aren’t considered a standard part of the journalistic canon. Journalists lionize reporters like Chris Wallace’s father, Mike, who once asked the Ayatollah Khomeini how he felt about being called a lunatic, or Oriana Fallaci, whose brutal interview of Henry Kissinger would become, in his words, “the single most disastrous conversation I have ever had with any member of the press.”

There’s an important difference between a softball question and the dear-leader sycophancy that a TV personality like Fox’s Maria Bartiromo demonstrates—most recently in May, when she asked Trump, “I’ve never seen anybody take a punch and then get right back up and keep punching. I mean, where does this resilience come from?”

None of this means that reporters should avoid difficult questions; they’re essential for many stories. But occasionally, a hard question puts the president—or someone of his ego—on the defensive, while the gentle one prods him to be more candid than he intended.

Two days after the Siegel interview, Trump was back before the cameras at the White House, this time being interviewed by Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports. Portnoy can be caustic—as well as misogynistic and racist—but at the White House, he became a tail-wagging puppy, seeking Trump’s approval in return for a morsel or two. And it worked.

After beginning the interview by praising Trump because he didn’t fall for an Ali G interview years ago, Portnoy then asked the president how the country can “close the divide.… It seems like half the country hates the other half.… How do we bring it together?”

Trump’s answer: “Success.… The best employment numbers in the history of our country.… Best stock market we’ve ever had.… Everybody was making a lot of money…and then China sent us this horrible, bad present.”

Portnoy’s question is as easy as it gets for politicians, most of whom would gush a paean to American history and vow to bring the country together. Not Trump. He can’t countenance the idea that the chasm goes beyond the stock or job market to issues of equity, racial justice, or pandemic responses. 

As their chat nears its end, Portnoy displays some self-awareness about what he’s doing. “I feel like so many interviews, they’re always coming from an agenda, positive or negative…they come at you hard, you just come back harder.… People say, ‘Is it presidential, is it not?’ And you just do your thing.”

Softball questions don’t always work. In March, as the pandemic was shuttering candidates indoors, CNN’s Brooke Baldwin tossed this hanging slider to Biden: 

Really your strength is in traveling around the country and connecting with people, right. Connecting with voters. Looking them in the eye, a hug, handshake. Especially in these crucial months before the election. And you can’t do any of that right now. Mr. Vice President, does that worry you?

Biden parried that one with ease: “No, it doesn’t worry me. The thing that worries me is whether we get this under control.”

An occasional bonus with softball interviews is the surprise shown by reporters when they realize that the guest just unexpectedly delivered actual news. That happened in 2018, when the Stormy Daniels story was gaining steam, and Fox’s Sean Hannity hosted Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. 

 

Hannity asked about Fusion GPS, a private investigative firm, and the dossier compiled by Christopher Steele on Trump’s presidential campaign. For some reason, Giuliani turned the discussion to the $130,000 hush payment—the one that Trump had denied being involved with. He tells Hannity, “That money was not campaign money, sorry. I’m giving you a fact that you don’t know. It’s not campaign money. No campaign finance violation.… They funneled it through a law firm, and the president repaid it.”

Hannity seemed taken aback by Giuliani’s candor. “Oh, I didn’t know that he did.” Neither did the rest of the country, until the president’s lawyer blurted it out, to one of his favorite interviewers.

[CaptainMaverick]

CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK

President Trump Finds His TV Niche in Softball Interviews

Mike Huckabee’s recent television interview with President Trump.

By James Poniewozik

• Nov. 10, 2017

“You came into this job fighting like hell,” Lou Dobbs said to President Trump, one of many compliments he offered in their recent Fox Business interview. “And you are fighting like hell every day.”

Fact check: It depends. Sure, Mr. Trump plays the pugilist on Twitter, with N.F.L. players, legislators or whatever news show he happens to be watching at the time. But when it comes to TV sit-downs, the battler in chief now prefers pillow fights.

After all, why grapple with a network news anchor when he can chat with Mike Huckabee, the father of his press secretary? On the Oct. 7 premiere of his show on the Christian-oriented Trinity Broadcasting Network, Mr. Huckabee hit the president with such humdinger questions as “Does it sometimes bother you that [the first lady] has such fantastic approval ratings?”

 

[CaptainMaverick]

Trump rips '60 Minutes' for softball Biden interview: 'Led him along like a lost child'

CBS News' Scott Pelley sat down with Biden for an interview largely focused on the Israel-Hamas crisis

Former President Trump tore into "60 Minutes" for its easy treatment of President Biden Sunday, declaring the long-running news program "highly partisan."

Biden, who rarely grants interviews, sat down for the second time in his presidency with CBS News' Scott Pelley for an interview primarily focused on America's response to the ongoing Israel-Hamas crisis. 

Trump, who is aiming for a rematch against Biden in 2024, took to Truth Social telling his followers that "60 Minutes" should be "ashamed of themselves."

"They just interviewed Crooked Joe Biden, and led him along like a lost child," Trump wrote Sunday night. "Each question contained the answer, and was so weakly and apologetically asked that it was a JOKE which should be considered a campaign contribution to the Democrat Party." 

JOE BIDEN BLUNTLY ASKED 'ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO RUN AGAIN' IN '60 MINUTES' INTERVIEW

 

CBS News' Scott Pelley sat down with President Biden for an interview that aired on "60 Minutes." (CBS/Screenshot)

"Why should CBS get free public airwaves for this highly partisan ‘show,’ which never apologized to me for the mistakes they made on the 'Laptop from Hell?' They are protecting Biden even though he is the most corrupt and incompetent President in the history of the United States," he continued. 

Trump alluded to his combative "60 Minutes" interview with CBS News' Lesley Stahl where she famously laughed off the Hunter Biden scandal in the final weeks of the 2020 election and told the then-president that the newly-surfaced laptop could not be verified. 

BIDEN'S STRING OF ‘FRIENDLY’ INTERVIEWS AVOID QUESTIONS ABOUT HUNTER, CORRUPTION ALLEGATIONS AS TROUBLES MOUNT

The 2024 GOP frontrunner further railed against CBS News during a campaign event in Iowa on Monday. 

"Did you see [Biden] on ‘60 Minutes’ last night?" Trump asked the crowd. "The questions- ‘Isn’t it true that you really like Israel a lot and that you'll do this and this,' and he goes ‘Yes.’ ‘Isn’t it true…' - they don't treat me that way on ‘60 Minutes!’" 

 

Former President Trump railed against "60 Minutes" for its treatment of President Biden, comparing it to his hostile sitdown with Lesley Stahl in 2020. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Ahead of the interview, Pelley offered his viewers a disclaimer about Biden's condition. 

"Late Thursday, we met President Biden at the White House. It had been a rough week, and we could see it on him. Mr. Biden will be 81 next month, and he has said that when he's tired, his life-long stutter can creep back in," Pelley said. 

‘60 MINUTES’ HOST SAYS BIDEN SEEMS ‘TIRED’ AFTER MANAGING EFFORTS IN ISRAEL, UKRAINE: ‘WE COULD SEE IT’

Some of the questions Pelley posed to Biden that Trump satirized included, "Why do you feel so strongly about speaking to these families [of American hostages in Gaza] personally on Zoom?," "Is getting the American hostages back safely among your highest priorities now?," "Does the dysfunction that we've seen in Congress increase the danger in the world?" and "Why do you feel so strongly? What does Israel mean to you?"

Pelley previously interviewed Biden in September 2022. It is rare for anyone to secure one interview with the current president let alone multiple. 

 

CBS News' Scott Pelley offered a disclaimer to viewers that President Biden's "stutter" is due to his tiredness. (Screenshot/CBS News)

President Biden has been criticized for his "friendly" sit-downs, even by members of the legacy media.

"They pretty much made it clear that I don't think they - they see that they may be meeting that standard by putting the president up for interviews with, I would say, friendly talk show hosts and maybe getting their message out on social media," New York Times reporter Zolan Kanno-Youngs said at last month's Texas Tribune Festival. 

 

 

[CaptainMaverick]

Steve Kroft's Softball Obama Interviews Diminish '60 Minutes'

 

By Conor Friedersdorf

ll 14 questions the award-winning correspondent posed in his recent sit-down were glaringly flawed. Even Jon Stewart is more hard-hitting.

CBSNews.com

 

On 60 Minutes, the news-magazine show that prides itself on "hard-hitting" investigations and interviews, correspondent Steve Kroft, who has won most of the highest awards in his industry, has just broadcast another softball interview with the most powerful man in the world, a performance that ought to earn him a rebuke from his peers in the news business but almost certainly won't. His CBS bio page proudly touts his unparalleled access to President Obama: He scored the first post-election sit down after Election 2008, another exclusive following the killing of Osama bin Laden, and a third sit-down as the president kicked off his reelection campaign.

Little wonder that Obama keeps going back. The 60 Minutes brand is associated with probing interviews, and Kroft is adept at using his tone and manner to create the impression of tough questions without actually asking any. For Sunday's interview, Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who sat beside him, benefited from 60 Minutes gravitas while answering questions better suited to Ellen. It hardly matters whether Kroft is deliberately pulling his punches to secure ongoing access or is simply disinclined to fulfill the core journalistic duty of holding powerful people accountable for their actions; his Obama interviews ought to diminish his standing and the reputation of his employer.

 

 

[CaptainMaverick]

rump knocks ‘softball’ Hannity interview with DeSantis

BY DOMINICK MASTRANGELO - 08/24/23 7:34 AM ET

 

 

Former President Trump took a shot at Fox News host Sean Hannity for what he called a “softball” interview with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, his top Republican rival, after Wednesday night’s primary debate.

“DeSanctimonious was a ‘BOMB’ tonight, especially with his softball interview with Sean Hannity,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website early Thursday. “This guy has totally forgotten his past. Who cares!?!?”

The former president was referencing a short interview DeSantis granted from the spin room in Milwaukee. Hannity hosted interviews with a number of other GOP candidates, as well.

Hannity, one of Fox’s top rated hosts for years, is a personal friend of Trump who has served as one of his biggest boosters in media.

 

Trump, the race’s front-runner, has ridiculed Fox for months over its coverage of DeSantis and cited his “hostile” relationship with the network as one of the reasons he decided not to participate in Wednesday night’s debate, which was hosted by the network.

Trump instead sat for an interview this week Tucker Carlson, a former Fox host who was pulled off the air in April.