Fox News should be utterly ashamed. Donald Trump should sue the network for harassment. There’s no other way to explain it.
Look, whether you love Trump or not, what Fox News did to him last night was unethical and downright nasty. Do tough questions need to be asked of Donald Trump? Duh. Of course. But that first, ‘raise your hand” question was a setup.
Just to refresh your memory, the Fox News Moderators asked the candidates the following:
“Is there anyone on stage, and can I see hands, who is unwilling tonight to pledge your support to the eventual nominee of the Republican party and pledge to not run an independent campaign against that person. Again, we’re looking for you to raise your hand now — raise your hand now if you won’t make that pledge tonight.”
Fox News TOTALLY KNEW Trump would raise his hand and none of the other candidates would. FOX knew the answer ahead of time. They wanted to see Trump squirm. It wasn't honest. You should only ask a “hand-raising question” if you truly don't know what all the candidates will do or where they stand.
Now, should FOX have asked that question to Trump as a separate stand-alone question? Sure. That’s fair. But to purposely know the answer ahead of time and embarrass a presidential candidate like that was foul play. It gave credibility to the theory that Fox News has no desire for Trump to be the standard bearer for the GOP and therefore he needed to be shown up in front of millions and taken out.
Here’s a question for Fox News: If you’re going to play the “hand-raising game” then why not ask this question: "Raise your hand if you would support Donald Trump as the nominee of the Republican Party? That question never came.
Oh, one more thing. In the first debate, the Fox News moderators decided to give all the candidates a chance to pop off about Trump. Of course Trump wasn’t on stage to defend himself. What’s up with that? Fair and balanced? Hardly.
Fox News has always been labeled as a mouthpiece for the Republican Party. On the debate stage in Cleveland, what we saw was a blatant attempt by the network to rub out a republican candidate not of their choosing. They don’t want Donald Trump anywhere near that nomination and they did everything in their power to get their wish. They want a traditional republican holding the mantle. You want to bring to light all of Donald Trump’s past controversies? That’s fine. That’s fair game. But the manner in which it was done is the problem. You knew how it would play out. You knew it would be an embarrassing moment for him and you loved every minute of it. Why? Because while the network may be a mouthpiece for the Republican Party, they want the right mouth. Not what they consider a loud mouth.