Barack Obama had harsh words for Fox News, radio host Rush Limbaugh, and conservative media during a virtual fundraiser in support of Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.
The former president began with soft references to media and commentators friendly to President Trump, saying that there is “a media structure” that supports the Trump White House.
“What we have seen over the last couple of years is a White House enabled by Republicans in Congress and a media structure that supports them and has not just differed in terms of policy, but has gone to the very foundations of who we are and who we should be,” Obama said.
Later, Obama said that Trump “exploits divisions” among people, particularly by feeding anxieties about economic uncertainty, what Obama thinks is a main driver of backlash to social movements such as Black Lives Matter and gay and transgender rights.
“And it’s amplified — there’s a whole megaphone of conservative media that has ramped that up,” Obama said.
He told the roughly 175,000 grassroots donors on the call that they are more likely than him to change the minds of friends and family members who consume conservative media.
“If you’ve got an uncle, or a grandmother, who is watching Fox News and listening to Rush Limbaugh — if I say something to her or him, they’re not gonna be paying much attention,” Obama said. “In fact, I can’t reach them. But you can.”
Obama’s comments on Tuesday built on his criticism from earlier this year that appeared to reference Fox News.
“Our country’s future hangs on this election. And it won’t be easy. The other side has a massive war chest. The other side has a propaganda network with little regard for the truth,” Obama said in a video endorsing Biden.
