On today’s Fox News Sunday, Reince Priebus and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairs of the Republican and Democratic National Committees, respectively, faced off. But one side got a little extra help. Can you guess which one?
Of course, the topic for discussion was the upcoming midterm elections. And Wallace was there to help with some “heads Republicans win, tails Democrats lose” balance Fox News style.
First, Wallace highlighted Republicans’ strength in key states for taking control of the Senate. That just happened to give him the opportunity to reiterate Republican talking points:
WALLACE: I think you would both agree that perhaps the Republicans’ best issue is the unpopularity of this president. Look at some interesting numbers here. In these four critical states with key Senate races, Mr. Obama’s approval rating is in the 30s, and all four Democratic incumbents running for reelection in those states have voted with the president more than 90 percent of the time.
Wallace even played a clip of Republican candidate Tom Cotton “going after” incumbent Senator Mark Pryor in Arkansas by tying his voting record to President Obama in just the same way. That was before Wallace asked Wasserman Schultz if President Obama wasn’t a “real problem” for incumbent Democrats in trouble. Of course, Wasserman Schultz thought not and that led to some debate.
Then Wallace purported to bring up Democratic strengths. But the “strength” he referred to just happened to give him an excuse to highlight a statement Wasserman Schultz made that got her into some political hot water, until she apologized for it:
WALLACE: One of the Democrats’ best issues is women, and what they call the war on women by Republicans. Congresswoman, you have hit that issue hard. Let’s take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Scott Walker has given women the back of his hand—I know that is stark, I know that is direct, but that is reality.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: While you later said that was a bad choice of words, you’re not backing away from the argument that Democrats are helping women and Republicans are launching a war on women?
Wallace did ask Priebus, “Don’t women have legitimate concerns about Republican policy?”
But there was no highlighting any Republican gaffes. In fact, #fangate was not mentioned at all during the entire show.
Watch the subtle bias below.
