The Democratic National Committee stands by its decision not to allow Fox News to host a Democratic primary debate in the 2020 presidential election, a party official told Cheddar on Thursday.
“Our role at the DNC is to make sure we have a fair process and we do not believe Fox News can have a fair debate,” the DNC communications director Xochitl Hinojosa said.
DNC Chairman Tom Perez announced the party’s decision earlier this week following a bombshell report from investigative journalist Jane Mayer in The New Yorker that outlined how Fox News’s coverage has moved far beyond its conservative bent and is now defined by the close relationship between President Trump and network executives. The report also cited sources who suggested that during the 2016 campaign, then-candidate Trump may been tipped off about some of the questions he would be asked during a Fox News-hosted debate.
“Fox has been both his shield and his sword,” Mayer writes. “The White House and Fox interact so seamlessly that it can be hard to determine, during a particular news cycle, which one is following the other’s lead.”
“Recent reporting has made it clear that we cannot rely on Fox to host a fair and neutral debate,” Perez said in a statement.
Fox News urged the DNC to reconsider its decision. Fox reporters “embody the ultimate journalistic integrity and professionalism” and “offer candidates an important opportunity to make their case to the largest TV news audience in America,” the network's senior vice president, Bill Sammon, said in a statement.
Hinojosa added that the DNC’s concerns lie not with the reporters but with the network’s top brass. “If the top executives are in the pocket of Donald Trump, that is not a good thing and something that deeply concerns us. It is too much of a risk,” she said.
President Trump tweeted his thoughts on the decision:
Hinojosa acknowledged that Fox viewers are “an important audience” and people the DNC “needs to reach,” but urged candidates to go directly to them through other press events and campaign stops.
Yet, regarding the debates, “the damage is done,” Hinojosa said. “We have seen with Fox News that they have not been willing to be fair when it comes to their inappropriate behavior with Donald Trump.”
To accommodate the large number of primary candidates ー 14 and counting ー the summer debates have the option of taking place over two consecutive nights. The nightly lineups will be determined at random.
“My goal in this framework is to give the grassroots a bigger voice than ever before; to showcase our candidates on an array of media platforms; to present opportunity for vigorous discussion about issues, ideas and solutions; and to reach as many potential voters as possible,” Perez said in a statement.
Peter Zalzal, associate vice president for clean air strategies at the Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, joined Cheddar to discuss the Biden Administration's unveiling of stricter fuel-efficiency standards for new automobiles. "The administration estimated that these rules will reduce about 2.5 billion tons of climate pollution by 2050, and using less fuel also means that we have to go to the gas pump less often. And so it means we save money, thousands of dollars in avoided fuel costs each year for consumers," he noted.
The relatively robust March jobs report showed that despite the low unemployment rate, Black, Hispanic, and women job seekers are still having difficulty finding work. William M. Rodgers III, the vice president and director of the Institute for Economic Equity at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis noted that participation rates in the labor force ticked up for minorities, adding to other positive signs of growth. He also spoke to Cheddar News to discuss further the jobs figures, the state of the labor market, and rising inflation.
U.S. markets opened higher to kick off the second quarter, despite a miss on the March Jobs Report. The economy added $431,000 in the month, slightly lower than the $490,000 analysts had expected. The unemployment rate also ticked down to 3.6% from 3.8%. Kevin Simpson, Founder & Chief Investment Officer, Capital Wealth Planning joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
President Biden is going after billionaires in his 2023 budget request to congress. The proposal would establish a 20% minimum tax rate on all households worth more than $100 million, as well as raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%. Rhett Buttle, Small Business for America's Future Senior Advisor, Business Policy Expert & Biden Campaign Business Advisor, breaks down the proposal, what it aims to accomplish, and how small businesses might feel about it.
The Biden administration has announced the U.S. will accept up to 100,000 refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine and provide more than 1 billion dollars in new funding for the growing humanitarian crisis. The move comes as President Biden meets with his western counterparts in Europe to demonstrate a united front against Russia and show support for Ukraine. Altagracia Pierre-Outerbridge, Immigration Attorney for Outerbridge Law, explains how this is going to work.
The DOJ has endorsed an antitrust bill targeting tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Meta, and Google. The legislation would ban the companies from favoring their own products and services over their competitor's, making it more difficult them to dominate the marketplace. Greg Day, Assistant Professor of Legal Studies at the University of Georgia, breaks down the bill and its potential impact on anti-competition in the tech sector.
Catching you up with what you need to know on Apr 1, 2022, with Ukrainians hoping to flee the besieged city of Mariupol with a ceasefire is in place, President Biden orders the release of oil from U.S.reserves, LGBT activists suing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over the "Don't Say Gay" Law, U.S. passports offering an "x" option for gender, and more.
America’s employers extended a streak of robust hiring in March, adding 431,000 jobs in a sign of the economy’s resilience in the face of a still-destructive pandemic and the highest inflation in 40 years.
