The first Republican Primary Debate took place yesterday and while former President Donald Trump opted not to attend, his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. was very vocal about his views on the matter.
Trump Jr. accused Fox News of trying to “silence” Trump supporters by blocking his access to the spin room at the first Republican primary debate. He voiced his opinion on social media by posting a video of himself speaking to reporters after the debate and claiming that Fox News is “trying to censor and silence Trump supporters to protect their hand-picked establishment candidates.”
Fox News is the network that hosted and aired the debate, and they generally issue credentials for the spin room only to surrogates of candidates who actually attended the debate. Reporters noticed that security guards were circulating a flier with pictures of top Trump aides noting that they were barred from attending the debate; however, the network claims it was “designed and printed by the Fiserv Forum security team as a guide for candidate walk throughs.”
Fox News is trying to censor and silence Trump supporters to protect their hand-picked establishment candidates.
That’s a big reason why their ratings are dying, while my father’s interview with Tucker Carlson is already at 93 million views!!! https://t.co/Qf4LI63BiB
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 24, 2023
Nevertheless, several other Trump supporters did manage to gain access to the spin room.
The relationship between Trump Jr. and Fox News had been strained for months due to the former President’s contention that the network has provided “hostile” coverage. This resulted in Fox News bringing on several Trump-friendly commentators in the weeks leading up to the debate to persuade Trump to attend the meeting. Yet, Trump chose to sit for an interview with former Fox host Tucker Carlson instead, which is getting way more coverage on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Fox News also came under fire from conservative Ben Sharipo, slamming the network for not allowing other networks to air clips of the debate for analysis.
“Per Fox News, any media covering tonight’s debate are only allowed to post up to 3 minutes TOTAL of the footage,” Shapiro wrote. “That’s about two clips for all coverage. By imposing these ridiculous restrictions they’re not only depriving voters of relevant and important news, they are actually just giving a leg up to Trump, who is putting everything out for free on X with Tucker.”
INSANE: per Fox News, any media covering tonight’s debate are only allowed to post up to 3 minutes TOTAL of the footage. That’s about two clips for all coverage. By imposing these ridiculous restrictions they’re not only depriving voters of relevant and important news, they are… pic.twitter.com/8dL0aTlc7W
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) August 23, 2023
