Fox’s Martha MacCallum Defends CEO Dinner With Trump At Golf Club: ‘I Don’t Think There’s Anything Unusual’
Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum defended Fox executives having dinner with ex-President Donald Trump at his golf club, saying “I don’t think there’s anything unusual” about it.
MacCallum and fellow Fox News anchor Bret Baier are on a bit of a media tour to promote the debate they’re co-moderating next Wednesday on Fox, and perhaps draw Trump out of the woodwork and onto the stage. That tour included an interview with WSJ reporters Isabella Simonetti and Joe Flint.
In spite of the fact that WSJ and Fox News both are owned by parent companies under the Murdoch umbrella, the reporters did not completely shy away from tough topics like the Dominion lawsuit or the dinner.
The New York Times reported earlier this month that Fox News President Jay Wallace and CEO Suzanne Scott had dinner with Trump at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey to persuade him to participate in the debate.
WSJ confirmed the report, and asked MacCallum about it:
Senior Fox News executives, including CEO Suzanne Scott and network president Jay Wallace, recently went to Trump’s New Jersey golf club for dinner to try to persuade him to attend the debate, affirming the importance of his attendance to the network, people familiar with the meeting said.
“I don’t think there’s anything unusual about executives interacting with top-level candidates,” MacCallum said. “You want to make sure that you have an open line of communication and that everyone feels that they’re welcome and you want them on the stage.”
Some of that persuasion was in evidence elsewhere in the interview, as Baier and MacCallum argued for Trump’s participation.
“You’ve seen in recent days, Mike Pence, Ron DeSantis sort of draw a sharper line against the former president and I think it would give him an opportunity to speak to them in person in front of the country and let them know what he thinks,” MacCallum told the paper.
The pair also appeared to appeal to whatever FOMO instinct Trump posseses, with Baier saying “He’s gonna be a significant part of any debate, even if he’s not on stage,” and MaCallum later adding “It’s gonna give opportunity to these people to sort of have a big moment, make a mark, stand out, be the person that everyone’s talking about the next day.”
It appears the charm offensive didn’t work — Trump now says he’s skipping the debate to do something else.
