Hillary Clinton Will Join Bernie Sanders At A Fox News Town Hall On Monday Night
In a surprise move, Hillary Clinton has confirmed that she will make an appearance alongside Bernie Sanders at a Fox News town hall on Monday night. The move comes as something of a shock considering the network’s critical coverage of her campaign. This will mark the first time Hillary Clinton has made an appearance on Fox News in two years. That appearance will be at a town hall event in Detroit, where the Democratic front-runner will appear alongside her rival, Bernie Sanders.
The town hall event is set to be moderated by Bret Baier, Fox News’ chief political anchor, and will take place during a special edition of his usual Special Report program on Monday night at 6 p.m. Baier has been a leading face in Fox News’ coverage of the presidential race, previously moderating the network’s Republican debate.
.@HillaryClinton & @SenSanders join @BretBaier for a #SpecialReport Democratic town hall MONDAY at 6p ET.https://t.co/A9xlkT3YSB
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 5, 2016
That aforementioned town hall event now featuring both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton will interestingly take place just a day after the candidates make an appearance on CNN’s Democratic presidential debate. It’s an interesting move, considering the Democratic party has largely been unwilling to hold a fully fledged debate on the Fox News network. However, executives at the network are believed to be pleased to have achieved the next best thing in the form of a town hall.
The news comes following a prior announcement from Fox on Thursday that Bernie Sanders would be the sole participant in their town hall event, which suggested that Hillary Clinton at this point had turned down an invitation to appear in the Detroit town hall. However, less than 24 hours later, the Clinton campaign appeared to have had a change of heart, confirming that Hillary Clinton would, in fact, be appearing alongside Bernie Sanders. It’s unclear what caused that change of heart, but considering Hillary Clinton currently has the lead in the race for the Democratic nomination, she may well have been concerned that giving Bernie Sanders the entire stage in Detroit could jeopardize that.
Hillary Clinton last made an appearance on the Fox News network back in 2014, when she sat down for an interview with Bret Baier and Greta Van Susteren. Since then, the network has largely been critical of her time as Secretary of State and her subsequent presidential campaign. Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, was previously interviewed for the network by Chris Wallace just last month, but this, however, will be his first interview with Bret Baier.
Following her success on Super Tuesday, Hillary Clinton may be hurtling towards the Democratic nomination in the 2016 presidential race, but she knows that Bernie Sanders is still a popular candidate amongst voters, and she can’t afford to give him the entirety of the stage in Detroit on Monday evening. That being said, Clinton’s decision to appear on Fox News as part of their town hall event might be seen as something of a forfeit of principles, especially considering the former first lady appears to have boycotted the network for the past couple of years.
That being said, it’s easy to see why Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and the Democratic Party as a whole might wish to avoid Fox News, especially when you take into consideration controversies surrounding the network and political bias, with many believing Fox News leans to the right of American politics.
In the past, Fox News has clashed with the Obama administration, of which Hillary Clinton was a part. It’ll be interesting to see the approach Bret Baier takes when interviewing both Clinton and Sanders during the town hall event on Monday. Their performances could very well determine the result of upcoming primaries for the candidates.
[Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images]
