Liz Warren Turns Down Town Hall With Fox News — Calls It ‘A Hate-For-Profit Racket’

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren turned down an offer from Fox News to host a town hall for her Tuesday, calling the network “a hate-for-profit racket.”

Warren sent out of a series of tweets, saying she would be turning down the offer. It is “a hate-for-profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists—it’s designed to turn us against each other, risking life and death consequences, to provide cover for the corruption that’s rotting our government and hollowing out our middle class,” she wrote.

The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate also said “Fox News balances a mix of bigotry, racism, and outright lies with enough legit journalism to make the claim to advertisers that it’s a reputable news outlet. It’s all about dragging in ad money—big ad money.”

I love town halls. I’ve done more than 70 since January, and I’m glad to have a television audience be a part of them. Fox News has invited me to do a town hall, but I’m turning them down—here’s why…

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 14, 2019

Fox News is a hate-for-profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists—it’s designed to turn us against each other, risking life and death consequences, to provide cover for the corruption that’s rotting our government and hollowing out our middle class.

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 14, 2019

Hate-for-profit works only if there’s profit, so Fox News balances a mix of bigotry, racism, and outright lies with enough legit journalism to make the claim to advertisers that it’s a reputable news outlet. It’s all about dragging in ad money—big ad money.

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 14, 2019

But Fox News is struggling as more and more advertisers pull out of their hate-filled space. A Democratic town hall gives the Fox News sales team a way to tell potential sponsors it’s safe to buy ads on Fox—no harm to their brand or reputation (spoiler: It’s not).

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 14, 2019

Here’s one place we can fight back: I won’t ask millions of Democratic primary voters to tune into an outlet that profits from racism and hate in order to see our candidates—especially when Fox will make even more money adding our valuable audience to their ratings numbers.

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 14, 2019

Warren’s comments come after Fox News hosted town halls for a few of her opponents including, Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders. New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has a town hall with Fox News on June 2 and South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg also has a town hall with Fox News scheduled for May 19.

Sanders’s April Fox News town hall was the highest-rated presidential town hall this cycle, with nearly 2.6 million viewers. The next highest-viewed town hall was California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris’s on CNN.