Fox News Airs Pence Speech But Completely Ignores Dueling Trump Speech
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Former President Donald Trump and his Vice President Mike Pence gave competing speeches on Tuesday and received very different live coverage across cable news – particularly on Fox News.
Pence spoke first at the Young America’s Foundation, a conservative youth group, and received just over 15 minutes of live coverage on Fox News. Neither CNN nor MSNBC covered Pence’s speech live but discussed its content in multiple segments throughout the day.
Trump spoke later in the day at the America First Policy Institute summit in Washington, D.C., and gave a 90-minute barn burner of a speech that was ignored by all three major networks live but was carried in its entirety by Newsmax.
Newsmax and Fox News have differed before in their coverage of Trump speeches, with Newsmax offering Super Bowl-like coverage of Trump rallies with fully programmed pre and post-coverage. Fox News, on the other hand, has chosen to air its highly rated regularly scheduled programming.
Newsmax’s coverage of Trump rallies has helped the ratings beleaguered network boost its numbers, although it has been unable to retain the audience that tunes in for the rallies.
Fox News’ prime time hosts did mention Trump’s speech and Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham dedicated much of their handover between shows to praising Trump’s speech.
Ingraham told Hannity she wanted to give Trump a “compliment” and took aim at a regular criticism leveled against the former president. “Yeah. I mean, he’s like, oh, he’s not substantive? What other politician in America can keep a crowd in rapt attention for 90 minutes straight? It was I think it was great,” said Ingraham.
“From my perspective when he’s on issues and he’s standing for the forgotten men and women and running that campaign, I think he’s unbeatable, nobody better,” jumped in Hannity.
Notably, Newsmax’s Chief White House Correspondent James Rosen didn’t quite agree with Hannity and Ingraham’s praise of the speech. Rosen noted on Twitter, “Former President Trump spoke 90 mins. Crowd thinned out during remarks.”
“Biggest applause line was against trans athletes,” added Rosen, saying the speech was “Reminiscent of inaugural address, referencing ‘carnage’ and blood-soaked streets. Dollop of election denial, ‘hacks and thugs’ on J6 ‘unselect committee.’”
Former President Trump spoke 90 mins. Crowd thinned out during remarks. Biggest applause line was against trans athletes. Reminiscent of inaugural address, referencing “carnage” and blood-soaked streets. Dollop of election denial, “hacks and thugs” on J6 “unselect committee.”
— James Rosen (@JamesRosenTV) July 26, 2022
A new report out on Wednesday from Rolling Stone notes that Trump has been voicing concern about which Fox News hosts remain in his corner as headlines have dominated the media in recent weeks speculating Fox News may be looking to move on from Trump.
“For instance, Trump views Sean Hannity as firmly in his column, and has expressed some doubt about which camp Laura Ingraham might end up in come 2024,” Rolling Stone reported, citing private discussions Trump has been having.
