Trump rails against Fox News for planning interviews with Schiff, Comey
President Trump late Saturday ripped Fox News for scheduling interviews with former FBI Director James Comey and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), saying that the decision was an example of the network’s efforts to be “politically correct.”
“Hard to believe that @FoxNews will be interviewing sleazebag & totally discredited former FBI Director James Comey, & also corrupt politician Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff,” Trump tweeted. “Fox is trying sooo hard to be politically correct, and yet they were totally shut out from the failed Dem debates!”
In a separate tweet, Trump suggested that Fox News was becoming more like MSNBC and CNN, networks he often targets over its coverage.
“They’ll all die together as other outlets take their place. Only pro Trump Fox shows do well. Rest are nothing. How’s Shep doing?” he added, referencing former Fox News host Shepard Smith, who departed from the network in October.
Comey and Schiff are set to appear on “Fox News Sunday” with host Chris Wallace to discuss the House’s impeachment inquiry and the findings of the Justice Department’s inspector general report into the origins of the FBI’s probe into Trump’s campaign.
The interview with Comey will arrive just days after Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s conclusion that FBI agents were not motivated by political bias when they launched investigations into associates of President Trump during the 2016 campaign.
Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report found that the FBI had an “authorized purpose” when it pushed forward with its probe of George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort and Carter Page. But he also criticized certain elements of the FBI probe, including how agents carried out an application to the secretive court created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to monitor Page.
Trump has frequently attacked Fox News and some of its broadcasters over its coverage in recent months. He called Wallace “nasty” and “obnoxious” in November after the host aggressively questioned House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) about the impeachment inquiry into Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.
Trump last week accused Fox News of pandering to the Democratic Party by hosting Democratic members of Congress on its programs.
“The Dems wouldn’t let @FoxNews get near their bad ratings debates, yet Fox panders,” he tweeted, apparently referencing the Democratic National Committee’s refusal to let Fox News host a debate. “Pathetic!”
Fox News has not commented on Trump’s continued criticism of its news coverage. Wallace said in a speech at the Newseum last Wednesday that Trump’s attacks against the press amounted to the most “direct, sustained assault on the freedom of the press” in U.S. history.
Wallace’s interview with Comey figures to delve deeply into his time at the FBI as agents began an investigation into associates of the Trump campaign. While the former FBI head has expressed vindication in the wake of the findings, Trump and others have claimed that the report shows wrongdoing occurred.
Attorney General William Barr said in a statement that the report showed the FBI “launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions.”