President Donald Trump mocked Fox News host Laura Ingraham for wearing a face mask to his campaign rally in Michigan on Friday. He complained about the network in general, telling the crowd: “somewhere along the line we lost Fox, but that’s okay.“
Ingraham was in a VIP seat at Trump’s rally in Waterford Township, Michigan on Friday, reportedly intending to film a special segment for her show with him afterward. However, Trump may have soured that meeting when he mocked Ingraham for wearing a mask and being “very politically correct.” Trump lingered on the jokes when he saw that they got a reaction from the crowd, and then turned his ire on the Fox News network in general.
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“The governor did bad things” — Trump on Gov. Tim Walz requiring attendees of Trump’s rally in Rochester to socially distance, thus limiting the attendance pic.twitter.com/aVozIiEAjx
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 30, 2020
“I can’t recognize you, is that a mask?” Trump called to Ingraham. “No way, are you wearing a mask?! I’ve never seen her in a mask, look at you! Oh, she’s being very politically correct, whoa!”
Trump then compared his 2016 presidential campaign to the current one, saying that Fox News is treating him differently this time around. He said: “The crowds are much bigger, there’s more enthusiasm, but Fox is the big difference. “Somewhere along the line we lost Fox, but that’s okay.”
Trump seemed bitter that Fox was covering his opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden at all, and that they aired speeches by his predecessor, former President Barack Obama. However, he said: “we still have a few great ones at Fox.”
In addition to mocking Ingraham for following one of the most basic coronavirus precautions advised by his own administration, Trump repeatedly lied to the crowd about the state of the pandemic itself. While the number of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths is on the rise, Trump falsely claimed: “we’re still rounding the corner.”
More and more evidence is suggesting that this kind of dismissive commentary from Trump is going to hurt him ultimately in the 2020 presidential election. According to a report by The New York Times, research shows a direct correlation between COVID-19 outbreaks in communities and the local polling results swinging away from Trump. With millions of early votes and absentee ballots already cast, this could have surprising ripple effects when it comes time to count the votes.
At the time of this writing, the latest polls published by The Guardian show Biden with an 8.5 point lead in the national polls. However, experts expect the results to change drastically on Election Day itself, when a higher percentage of Republican voters are expected to turn out in person. Election Day 2020 is on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
