Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace griped on the air that there is so much dysfunction in the White House right now, he can’t even book a Trump surrogate for his Sunday show. “They’re not answering the phone,” Wallace said, obviously shocked. UPDATED
Before Wallace lambasted the Trump team, host Shannon Bream helpfully suggested that the bungled handling of FBI Director James Comey’s firing is just part of Trump’s greatness.
BREAM: This seems to be one of those perfect illustrations about how he’s not a Washington guy. He wants to do things his way and it’s so different than the way the Beltway is used to dealing with it. So does he do so to his own detriment or is this something – listen, his base loves it and says this guy [Comey] should have gone a long time ago.
Unlike some of his colleagues who have bent over backwards to justify Trump’s erratic behavior, Wallace blasted him. “The president has been blaming [his communications shop], but the fact is it should be blamed on him because he didn’t seem to trust them enough to give them advance notice,” Wallace said.
Raw Story has more details:
Friday morning, the longtime Fox host said President Trump’s press shop is still unprepared to defend the president’s latest crisis following the stunning decision to boot Comey earlier in the week.
[…]
“I mean, we’re waiting, just to give you an example, we very much want somebody to represent the president’s point of view on Sunday, about the Comey firing,” Wallace said with a bemused smile. “They still haven’t given us anybody. We can’t even reach anybody — they’re not available, they’re not answering the phone.”
You know something has to be amiss when a Fox News host can’t get someone in the Trump administration to return a phone call.
It doesn't look like the situation was ever resolved. I just checked the Fox News Sunday website and they have booked Democratic Senator Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and Republican Senator Mike Lee, of the Judiciary Committee. Lee is not exactly a big Trump fan.
We’ll see if someone from the White House steps up to the plate between now and then. But with Trump undercutting his staff so much, who could blame them for not wanting to appear?
Watch Wallace give the White House a virtual elbow jab below, from the May 12, 2017 America’s Newsroom.
5/14/17 Update: Wallace announced at the beginning of today's Fox News Sunday that the White House had refused to make anyone available to discuss Comey's firing.
I think the only possible contender is Trump’s pet rodent Priebus, and he always looks as though he could collapse in a fit of tears at any moment.