Elizabeth Warren refuses Fox News town hall invitation: 'It's a hard pass'

The Massachusetts senator says Fox News is a 'hate-for-profit racket' that 'profits from racism and hate'

Elizabeth Warren has refused Fox News’ invitation to hold a televised town hall, the Democratic 2020 primary challenger has announced.

In a statement, Ms Warren said she refused the Fox town hall because Fox News is a “hate-for-profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists”, and that she wouldn’t’ ask Democratic primary voters to tune into the network and provide cover for the network to tell advertisers that “it’s a reputable news outlet.”

“Hate-for-profit works only if there’s profit, so Fox News balances a mix of bigotry, racism, and outright lies with enough legit journalism to make the claim to advertisers that it’s a reputable news outlet,” Ms Warren said in the statement. “It’s all about dragging in ad money — big ad money.”

In declining the invitation, Ms Warren has broken from some other prominent Democrats in the 2020 field who have seen the platform as a good way to reach out to Trump voters, and have seen considerable ratings during their events. So far, candidates Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar have already held their town halls, while Pete Buttigieg and Kirsten Gillibrand are both scheduled for the events.

In a Twitter thread, Ms Warren said that she has held town halls across 17 states since January, and has had 57 "media availabilities", and conducted 131 interviews. All told, she has held some 70 town halls during that time, according to her campaign.

“A Fox News town hall adds money to the hate-for-profit machine. To which I say: hard pass,” she wrote in the Twitter thread. “Fox News is welcome to come to my events just like any other outlet.”

Ms Warren likely isn't risking alienating any Democratic voters by declining the invitation to appear on Fox News, which has long been despised in the party and denounced as a partisan outlet.

The animosity has only grown more intense since Donald Trump became president, as the president has regularly promoted the network and indicated frequently that he watches its morning programming religiously.

Mr Trump's administration has also hired from the network, and seen members of its top staff leave the White House to join the Fox News ranks.

Ms Warren has participated in two CNN town halls, earlier this year.