AL SHARPTON (HOST): Eric, why has Trump retreated to this Fox News bubble?
ERIC BOEHLERT: I think the main reason he can't answer a lot of questions, right, he can't, as we saw during the debate, questions about his tax returns, questions about the Trump Foundation, question about why he's an admirer of Vladimir Putin. At Fox News, they don't ask him about his tax returns, right? They don’t ask him about the Trump Foundation. They love Vladimir Putin on Fox News, so he's retreated to this bubble. The last press conference, as you mentioned, late July, that was the one at the Democratic convention where he seemed to encourage Russians to hack Democratic emails. That was the last time he stood before the reporters and took their questions. So, Fox is a place where you can be safe, you're always ahead, you’re always winning. The problem is as we saw in the debate, he wasn't ready for any tough questions. If you just get softball questions for two months, you're not ready to have a national debate.
SHARPTON: That really doesn’t prepare you. But at what cost, what is the cost of him only going on Fox and avoiding other media? I mean, didn't Romney try that?
BOEHLERT: He tried it, but not to this extent. Look, if you were still running for the Republican primary nominee, this would be a really smart strategy, right? You’re going to sort of super serve the Republican base on Fox, but if you're running for the White House and the fall campaign, there's no persuadable voters on Fox News. They are already there. So it's just sort of this feel good exercise that you're detached from the reality of American politics. Where he's got to be getting votes, those people aren’t watching Fox News. He won them nine months ago. He doesn't have to persuade them.
SHARPTON: Let me go to this. Talking about Fox News, Sean Hannity, he -- The New York Times has reported that he sent Trump a memo about how to respond to the Orlando nightclub attack and then had Trump on his show.
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SHARPTON: Now, Hannity appeared in a pro-Trump ad. Is he effectively part of the Trump campaign at this point?
BOEHLERT: Well, Sean Hannity, who said moments after the debate Donald Trump had a very good night, right, so Sean Hannity is basically de facto Trump spokesperson. We can get into the bizarre overlaps between Fox News and the Trump campaign. Sean Hannity being one, Roger Ailes forced out under unpleasant circumstances at Fox News, now advising the Trump campaign, and then we have a Fox anchor who's going to host one of the debates and says he's not going to fact check Donald Trump, so it's a very strange mix. But Sean Hannity, you know, he's sort of beyond being a journalist, I don’t think he ever recently has claimed to be. He's clearly just a spokesperson and he's given Trump tens of millions of dollars in free TV air time.
