MSNBC’s Chris Hayes talks with Media Matters’ Julie Millican about the “symbiotic” relationship between Fox and the Trump White House
Millican: Coordination between Fox hosts and the Trump campaign was “all in the service of undermining our election results in 2020”
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From the April 29, 2022, edition of MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes
JULIE MILLICAN (MEDIA MATTERS VICE PRESIDENT): Fox News has been a long-time arm of the Republican Party that translated into a full blown propaganda outlet when Trump's administration came into power. The organization, or the news network and Trump have a long-standing relationship. They have a very symbiotic relationship. Sean Hannity has been described as Donald Trump's shadow chief of staff. And I think those text messages showed that he is exactly that.
He was coordinating, colluding with Trump's chief of staff, Bartiromo who the network purports is one of their straight news anchors is literally handing not just questions, but talking points to Trump, and advice to Trump on how he should be responding, all in the service of undermining our election results in 2020. So it is really quite stunning to see it all play out, though not entirely surprising if you watch the coverage of the network.
CHRIS HAYES (HOST): I mean the Bartiromo stuff, it's not just that the questions are verbatim, like, "here is the script" to the president of the United States, this is a principle -- like, this is the most powerful person you could possibly interview, right?
But also, the coaching on the answers. Like, it's not enough -- there is not enough faith that the people on the other end could take care of that if you give him the questions, but actually you have to both sandwich in a little, "please, keep him on, let's stay focused, this is what we need from him." It is sort of a little sad actually that it's not enough to give the questions.
MILLICAN: I guess I give her credit for trying, I guess because he certainly did not heed her advice at all. I believe that interview lasted about 45 minutes and consisted of him rambling on, pushing all manners of a conspiracy theory about the election results, none of which of course she pushed back on. But it is interesting that even they realize that he is not necessarily making the best case for himself, and they have to try to do what they can to keep him on-message.