President Trump sent a tweet Wednesday night that seemed to suggest he would boycott general election debates on major TV news networks.
“Democrats just blocked @FoxNews from holding a debate. Good, then I think I’ll do the same thing with the Fake News Networks and the Radical Left Democrats in the General Election debates!” Trump said.
Democrats just blocked @FoxNews from holding a debate. Good, then I think I’ll do the same thing with the Fake News Networks and the Radical Left Democrats in the General Election debates!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 7, 2019
The tweet comes just hours after the Democratic National Committee announced it would not allow Fox News to air any debates with the party’s 2020 contenders. In a statement, DNC Chairman Tom Perez said that “the network is not in a position to host a fair and neutral debate for our candidates,” citing a recent article from the New Yorker claiming that the conservative news organization has crossed the line into propaganda.
Unlike primary debates, general election debates are overseen by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which was formed in 1987.
Trump has called a number of cable news networks, organizations, and reporters “fake news” during his tenure, but has often uses the phrase to describe CNN.
