Bernie Sanders Hopes to Reach Trump Supporters With Fox News Town Hall

By Stephen Proctor, Yahoo News

05 April 19

n The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders revealed why he decided to participate in a town hall hosted by Fox News.

In March, the Democratic National Committee announced it would not allow the network to host a Democratic primary debate, citing concerns over Fox News’ close ties with the Trump administration. But Sanders explained that he doesn’t equate the Fox News viewer with the network itself, and he thinks it is important to reach them.

“Trust me, I know Fox News. I know who they are, and I know the role that they are playing. So to me it is important to distinguish Fox News from the many millions of people who watch Fox News,” Sanders said. “I think it is important to talk to those people and say, ‘You know what? I know many of you voted for Donald Trump, but he lied to you. He told you, for example, he was going to provide health care to all people, now he wants to throw 30 million people off the health care that they had. He told you that he was gonna give tax reform that would not benefit the wealthy, 83 percent of the benefits go to the top 1 percent.’”

Though some have criticized his decision, Sanders reiterated exactly why he chose to do it.

“I think it is important to talk to Trump supporters and explain to them to what degree he has betrayed the working class of this country and lied during his campaign in terms of what he would do,” the Vermont senator said. 

Whether or not the message Sanders hopes to convey gets through to the audience remains to be seen. The town hall is set to air April 15 and will be moderated Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.