Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s big selling point when she entered the 2020 Democratic primary was that she is a policy wonk whose campaign would be policy heavy, with an added focus on policy.
But the Democratic base may now be a bit like the Republican base in 2016: They do not want a candidate who will talk numbers so much as they want someone who will act as an unabashed antagonist against the incumbent party. They want a “fighter,” someone who “says it like it is” and all that.
Warren’s poll position, far behind in third place despite her national profile, may be the reason why she, the supposed policy candidate, chose Tuesday to launch a broadside against one the left wing’s favorite targets: Fox News.
That ought to curry favor with the Democratic base!
“Fox News has invited me to do a town hall, but I’m turning them down,” the senator tweeted Tuesday.
She added, “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.”
[Read more: Elizabeth Warren attacks Fox News with video, fundraising]
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
Surely, the usual defenders of the press will denounce this unprecedented attack on a newsroom.
Any minute now.
“Hate-for-profit works only if there’s profit,” Warren’s Twitter account continued, “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.”
“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,” Warren tweeted.
Her rant concluded with a hilarious note, “I’m running a campaign to reach all Americans.”
As my Washington Examiner colleague Tom Rogan noted, there is something deeply absurd about claiming to run a campaign to “reach all Americans” while also spitting on an offer to reach a massive audience not available at any other newsroom.
Warren rejecting Fox’s town hall offer is not some brave stand for decency. It is a calculated gamble that she hopes will boost her credentials as an unabashedly anti-conservative, anti-Republican “fighter.”
It is a smart move.
The base’s desire for a “fighter” may be a large part of why a faux-folksy, “straight-talking” bomb thrower like former Vice President Joe Biden is polling in first place, according to a RealClearPolitics polling average. The desire for a no-nonsense anti-GOP champion may also be a large part of why the unapologetically progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is polling in second. South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg is also enjoying a polling boomlet, but I suspect that has more to do with identity politics — he’s gay — and his red meat attacks on Vice President Mike Pence than it does his alleged policy know-how.
Whether Warren’s attack on Fox News gives her a bump in polling is yet to be seen. But if anything gives her a leg up with the Democratic base, it will be stunts like this.
