Obama Talks to Fox News; the Freeze-Out Is Over
Lynn Sweet
Correspondent
Posted:
11/18/09
The freeze is over -- Fox News is back in the game.President Obama sat down with Fox News (and other networks) while in Bejing, China, for interviews airing on Wednesday. Obama's communications shop had excluded Fox from the president's last round of Sunday news show interviews because they did not like the way many Fox hosts were beating up on the administration.
Starting Wednesday morning, Fox was touting its sitdown interview with Obama, conducted by Fox White House correspondent Major Garrett. It was never personal with Garrett, who covered the Obama presidential campaign, and he discussed a wide range of topics with the president. The interview will air at 6 p.m. eastern time on "Special Report with Bret Baier."
The Fox boycott was led by Obama White House communications chief Anita Dunn, who told Time Magazine that Fox was "opinion journalism masquerading as news." Asked to explain during an Oct. 11 interview on CNN's "Reliable Sources," Dunn told host Howard Kurtz, "the reality of it is that Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party." She also said on that show that Obama would sit down again sometime with Fox-she just did not name a date.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Oct. 13 kept the pressure on Fox. "I have watched many stories on that network that I've found not to be true," he said at a briefing.
Dunn's taking Fox to the mat was really about rebutting negative stories -- called smears by the Obama White House -- mainly by opinionated Fox show hosts, including Glenn Beck. Fox News did devote extensive coverage to the anti-tax "tea parties," Obama's "czars," and ACORN, the controversial community-organizing group.
The Obama White House pushback against Fox went further than just nixing an Obama interview; rebuttals were posted on the White House web site.
Fox Sunday Show host Chris Wallace, who was snubbed when the president talked about health care with the other Sunday show hosts, said at the time the Obama team was the "biggest bunch of crybabies."
The Obama White House, like the Bush and Clinton administrations before it, often does rounds of network interviews when it suits their messaging goals. Besides Garrett, other network correspondents on the trip -- Chip Reid of CBS, Chuck Todd of NBC and Ed Henry of CNN -- were granted interviews on Tuesday night in China. ABC's Jake Tapper sat down with Obama earlier on the trip.
The war on Fox -- and the apparent truce for now -- raised Dunn's profile, just weeks before she announced that she would be stepping down as communications chief and out of the White House by the end of the year.
As for the Fox interview itself, Garrett asked the president about jobs and the Middle East, among other issues.
With unemployment over 10 percent, "there may be some tax provisions that can encourage businesses to hire sooner rather than sitting on the sidelines. So we're taking a look at those," the president told Garrett. "I think it is important, though, to recognize if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession."
The president also said that Israel's plan to build hundreds of new settlements -- despite Obama asking the Israelis not to -- is potentially "dangerous."
"The situation in the Middle East is very difficult, and I've said repeatedly and I'll say again, Israel's security is a vital national interest to the United States, and we will make sure they are secure," Obama noted. "I think that additional settlement building does not contribute to Israel's security. I think it makes it harder for them to make peace with their neighbors. I think it embitters the Palestinians in a way that could end up being very dangerous."
The president also said that Israel's plan to build hundreds of new settlements -- despite Obama asking the Israelis not to -- is potentially "dangerous."
"The situation in the Middle East is very difficult, and I've said repeatedly and I'll say again, Israel's security is a vital national interest to the United States, and we will make sure they are secure," Obama noted. "I think that additional settlement building does not contribute to Israel's security. I think it makes it harder for them to make peace with their neighbors. I think it embitters the Palestinians in a way that could end up being very dangerous."
Here are other highlights of the Fox interview:
"We are on a path and a process where I would anticipate that Guantanamo will be closed next year. . . . I'm not going to set an exact date because a lot of this is also going to depend upon cooperation from Congress."
On GM using bailout money for its overseas operations:
"[W]e are not going to meddle in GM's decisions. They now owe the U.S. government money. We are a shareholder but we are not an active shareholder."
On a deadline for health care legislation:
"I want this done as soon as possible, and I think the American people do. . . . It is a big, complicated piece of business. . . . A lot of the delay has been that the Congressional Budget Office . . . they've been overloaded. . . . I think it's entirely appropriate for legislators to say we want to make sure we get final numbers on any piece of legislation before we actually vote on it."
On the Stupak amendment to the House bill:
"I believe in the basic idea that federal dollars shouldn't pay for abortions. . . . I think there's some negotiations going on, not just on the Democratic side, but I think among people of goodwill on both sides, to see if we can arrive at something that meets that criteria and I'm confident we can do that."
On whether he'll read Sarah Palin's memoir:
"I probably will not, but I wish her well. You know, it looks like she's going to do very well without my readership."