Fox News Spent Indictment Night Begging Trump to Attend Debate: Report – Rolling Stone

Donald Trump faces a slew of criminal charges covering everything from paying off a porn star to scheming to overthrown the democratic process. Fox News doesn’t care, of course, nor do they care that the former president has long been bashing the network for insufficient loyalty. Fox News cares so little about these things that network brass responded to Trump’s latest federal indictment by kissing his ring over dinner in an effort to convince him to participate in the first GOP debate later this month.

The dinner, which was first reported by The New York Times, took place at Trump’s club in Bedminster, N.J., and featured Fox News President Jay Wallace and network CEO Suzanne Scott.

Trump has been coy about whether he will participate in any Republican primary debates, although he’s indicated he probably isn’t going to bother.

“So FoxNews, which is down 37% in the Ratings, doesn’t cover my getting the ‘Man of the Decade’ Award (because of my great trade policies!) in Michigan, or my Keynote Speech for Faith & Freedom in D.C., and then wants me to show up and get them ratings for their ‘Presidential’ Debate, where I’m leading the field by 40 points,” he wrote June 26 on Truth Social. “All they do is promote, against all hope, Ron DeSanctimonious, and he’s dropping like a rock. Sorry FoxNews, life doesn’t work that way!!!”

Trump is indeed well ahead of his competition. A New York Times/Siena College poll released earlier this week put him 37 percentage points ahead of Ron DeSantis, whose campaign has been foundering. The first debate is slated to take place Aug. 23 in Milwaukee, and air on Fox News.

The Times describes Trump’s private dinner with Wallace and Scott on Tuesday as “cordial,” with the Fox News execs fluffing the former president’s ego by telling him how much he excels at the center of the stage and that the debate would be a good forum to show off his prowess. Trump reportedly told them he still hasn’t made up his mind but that he would considering it.

Fox News declined to provide comment on the dinner to the Times, which also noted that Sean Hannity was supposed to attend. He couldn’t because he had to cover the indictment on the air.

“This is an incredibly weak, baseless, convoluted indictment,” Hannity said later Tuesday night on Fox News. “It is bizarrely centered around what is clearly protected speech, zero criminal statutes, because there are none that were applicable that are actually written into law.”

The indictment actually cites four criminal statutes — conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights — none of which, we have been reminded again, are of any concern to Fox News.