Fox News’ Chris Wallace has confronted advisers of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden, grilling them on their presidential campaigns’ failures. Neither of them seem to produce a good explanation besides campaign speeches.
Fox News Sunday turned out to be quite eventful, as its host faced campaign advisers for both of the presidential candidates. Wallace spoke with Trump’s 2020 campaign spokeswoman, Mercedes Schlapp, about poor attendance of Saturday’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where whole sections of the arena were seen empty.
The spokeswoman blamed the poor turnout on Black Lives Matter protesters, who were present outside the venue, echoing claims of Brad Parscale, the chairman of Trump’s reelection campaign.
“There were protesters who blocked the paths, and so we saw that have an impact in terms of people coming to the rally,” Schlapp said. “But what was amazing, Chris, was the fact that over 5.3 million people watched it on all of our digital media channels.”
However, it was not that easy to shake off Wallace who argued that the BLM activists were not scary enough to turn away the rally-goers, particularly as Tulsa police made only one arrest during the protest.
Protesters did not stop people from coming to that rally. The fact is, people did not show up.
Schlapp then used the trusty ‘look-at-the-Dems’ card, arguing that Biden’s campaign events look very bleak in comparison with Trump’s rallies. “I’d love to see a Joe Biden rally. Let’s bring it on, because there is no comparison,” she said.
Wallace, for his part, pointed out that denying “the reality” and dodging the topic does not look good for the campaign.
Mercedes, please don’t filibuster. We’re showing pictures here and it shows big, empty areas. Frankly, it makes you guys look silly when you deny the reality of what happened.
Biden’s senior adviser Symone Sanders, also interviewed on the show, used the same tactic: she threw jabs at the Tulsa rally as well, calling it a “debacle” and criticizing it for happening amid the coronavirus pandemic. She was pressed by Wallace over why the Democratic candidate has been hiding from the public.
“He has not held a news conference either in person or online for 80 days, almost three months. Why not?” Wallace asked.
Sanders explained that Biden “adjusted to this new normal like most people in America” and still regularly takes questions from the media. Wallace shot back that Biden has been hiding in his “basement” and quite ironically also cited President Trump, who earlier said that Biden was simply not up for campaigning and mocked his “zero enthusiasm” social-distanced rally in Philadelphia.
When journalists also noted that Biden has avoided holding a press conference in 80 days, Sanders somewhat lost her temper, claiming that the Democratic candidate has been prioritizing “local media.”
“As many of y’all in the national press and the beltway press are well aware, we take pride in prioritizing local media. And so, the vice president is doing local media interviews,” Sanders said.
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