By far, the most positive, most interesting, and most surprising event of the nascent 2020 presidential campaign occurred on April 15. Fox News’ Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum hosted a town meeting with Bernie Sanders. The event was staged in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania with the long dormant, since 1995, smokestacks of the shuttered Bethlehem Steel factory as a dramatic backdrop. lf you missed it, I would recommend that you stop reading here and click on the link and watch the program.
There is a backstory to the evening. You might have heard that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has blackballed Fox News from the Democratic primary debates. This is a huge setback for Fox News and as Vox reports in the quote below the action of the DNC is due to the unholy relationship that exists between the president and Fox News.
The Democratic National Committee will hold 12 debates during the 2020 presidential primary. None will be hosted by Fox News due to concerns over the network’s tight relationship with President Donald Trump.
DNC Chair Tom Perez announced on Wednesday that Democrats won’t partner with Fox News for any debate during the primary. He cited concerns over a blockbuster story from the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer published on Monday detailing the close ties between Fox News and the White House.
“I believe that a key pathway to victory is to continue to expand our electorate and reach all voters,” Perez said in a statement. “That is why I have made it a priority to talk to a broad array of potential media partners, including Fox News. Recent reporting in the New Yorker on the inappropriate relationship between President Trump, his administration and Fox News has led me to conclude that the network is not in a position to host a fair and neutral debate for our candidates. Therefore, Fox News will not serve as a media partner for the 2020 Democratic primary debates.”
One must imagine that the DNC decision hits Fox News where it hurts most, in its advertising revenue. Can you imagine all the faithful Fox viewers having to tune in to CNN to get the pleasure of yelling at their TV screens during the Democratic debates? Perhaps Fox is hoping that they can recoup some of their losses by staging a challenging debate between the president and Governor Bill Weld, the interesting former governor of Massachusetts who has already thrown his hat in the ring.
Whether their strategic response was considered or whether they accidentally fell into a new way to attract viewers is something only they know. Perhaps they noticed that a Kamala Harris town hall from South Carolina attracted an audience of 1.9 million viewers back in February on Facebook, even without Fox News personalities. For whatever reason, Fox offered Bernie Sanders an event, and he took it, even though some Democrats may have been upset. Bernie is not a card carrying Democrat, and it would not take a stretch of your imagination to realize that he may not have forgotten how the DNC treated him in 2016. However it happened, either by design or fate, Bernie drew 2.5 million to his presentation with Baier and MacCallum, and now Amy Klobuchar is scheduled, and Mayor Pete Buttigieg is in discussion with Fox News about a town hall. It seems that Fox has decided that if it can’t do the debates they will take as many candidates as they can, one at a time, and do the show with some of its tamer news personalities (Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum) other than Sean Hannity. The Fox move undercuts the retaliatory strategy of the DNC, but the Democrats are not admitting it. Axios quotes DNC communications director Xochitl Hinojosa as saying:
“While the DNC does not believe that FOX is equipped to be a partner for a 2020 debate because of concerns of fairness at the highest levels within their organization, the DNC believes that we must reach all voters, including their audience. Therefore, candidates should do what they need to do in order to engage these voters directly.”
Sanders’ excellent performance and Fox News’ creativity seems to have undermined the DNC strategy to punish Fox. Who knows, the candidates may discover that these “town halls” are a more efficient way to get out their individual message, and demonstrate to voters how they can respond to very direct and challenging questions. All of the accounts I have read suggest that Bernie won his “debate” with Baier and MacCallum and simultaneously was able to show that he has an in depth understanding of all of the critical issues and controversies, including “age v. youth.”
Dara Lind of Vox wrote a play by play review of the show that you can read by clicking on the link above. Lind writes more like she is reporting on a football game than a political discussion. Her succinct description of the climax of the healthcare discussion, which I mentioned in last Friday’s Healthcare Musings letter as corroboration of Troy Brennan’s assertion that Medicare For All is a likelihood, is terse, but it is an accurate description of a dramatic moment in television that was not planned:
After Sanders answered an audience question about why government-provided versus private-sector health care by outlining his health care proposal [you should read tis article by Sarah Kliff], Baier decided to poll the audience about it, asking people if they’d prefer it to their current, private-sector-provided health insurance. (That frame evokes Barack Obama’s famous promise that “If you like your healthcare, you can keep it” — something conservatives and Fox News frequently point to as a symbol of Obamacare’s broken promises.)
The poll … did not go the way Baier appears to have thought it would.
To my surprise I discovered that Fox had “live bloggers” offering real time commentary during the program. I will try to weave some information between the comments that the bloggers offer.
FoxLiveBlogTeam
Sanders explains that Medicare is a government program for senior citizens.
Bernie grounded his presentation in what people know and like. He presented Medicare as a program that is built on private practice and independent institutions that are not owned by the government, but are paid for their services by the government. He pointed out how everyone gets to pick their own doctor, and points out that with few exceptions most people consider the program to be an asset. Patients and providers trust the government to play its role as the “payer.” He makes the extension of this proven entity to all citizens sound prudent.
FoxLiveBlogTeam
On the topic of “Medicare for All,” Sanders says it’s a single-payer insurance program that will allow citizens to go to whatever doctor or hospital they want, despite being out-of-network.
Sanders continued by telling people what they know. Even employer sponsored coverage is expensive for the average family, and that many who have insurance are afraid to use it because they have inadequate coverage to protect them from bills they cannot pay. Sanders produced an estimate that perhaps as many as 30,000 people die yearly because of the continuing expense of care despite coverage. The bloggers inflate that to “millions.” Along the same lines, I was impressed that both MacCallum and Baier invented or distorted facts at many points in their “interrogation” of Sanders. He corrected them on occasion and ignored them on others, but always managed their misinformation with courtesy and skill.
FoxLiveBlogTeam
Sanders notes that many people are under-insured, and says it’s estimated that millions [he said 30 thousand] of people died each year because they don’t see a doctor when they need to.
Sanders pointed out that it is not uncommon for people to lose their coverage when they get ill or lose their job. They also often lose their doctor or preferred provider when their employer changes plans. He drew on his eight years as a mayor to admit that even in government the managers are frequently looking for less expensive plans that create burdens for employees. This instability of employer provided coverage would not exist with Medicare For All.
FoxLiveBlogTeam
Millions of people lose their health insurance each year when they lose or quit their jobs, Sanders says.
Sanders continued by asserting that there is a growing majority of Americans who are dissatisfied with the failures of the current system and are open to exploring Medicare For All. Democrats certainly are interested, but so are many independents and Republicans. The bloggers just mention Democrats.
FoxLiveBlogTeam
Sanders says that a strong majority of Democrats want a Medicare for All system.
The biggest push back from Baier and MacCallum was their focus on the fact of how the finance would work. Just to put things into perspective, we spend seven hundred billion a year on defense and over four times as much, over three trillion dollars on healthcare. Sanders rightly points out that there is enormous waste in both systems, and that there would be much more benefit spending some of both budgets on infrastructure, education, job training, and housing. It seemed hard for Baier and MacCallum to accept that all money is fungible, and that since the average family of four spends $28,000 a year on healthcare, they would be better off paying more income tax and nothing for healthcare. Sanders’ biggest “score” was his revelation that there would be more benefits available, and that at the point of service there would be no charges to function as a barrier to care.
FoxLiveBlogTeam
Health care will be free “at the point you use it,” Sanders says.
In desperation, Baier tried to imply that Congress would probably not force itself into Medicare For All. Bernie cut off that attack quickly, definitely, and tersely. There were several points in the “debate” where Baier tried to imply that Bernie was really part of the 1% or did not subject himself to the same criteria that he was applying to the Koch brothers or Amazon. Bernie can take care of himself.
FoxLiveBlogTeam
Sanders says that members of Congress will be included in his health care plan.
A subtext of the whole debate was the proper role of government in the affairs of people. The underlying issue is the “transfer of wealth” that is considered to be a socialist idea and is the methodology behind the fairer society that Sanders is advocating. The bloggers obscure much of his explanation for how improvements in healthcare, education, infrastructure, housing, and antipoverty programs will be financed and to what benefit by saying:
FoxLiveBlogTeam
He says that “most” other countries provide health care the way they provide education.
You may say, “Didn’t we cover this before?” Yes, but Baier and MacCallum could not let go of the idea that Bernie’s Medicare For All would raise taxes on the middle class. Bernie did not avoid the issue, but he kept coming back to the fact that families pay much more for the combination of taxes and substandard healthcare that is unreliable than they would under Medicare For All where there would be no cost for medical care which is better than what they currently experience. The bloggers almost get it right.
FoxLiveBlogTeam
Sanders says that people will pay more in taxes, but the “overwhelming majority” of people will pay less for health care because they will not be paying for deductibles or co-pays.
This is where Bret Baier tried to take back the momentum by asking for the show of hands of those who liked Bernie’s idea, and was surprised to see every hand go up. The next FoxLiveBlogTeam entry says it all:
FoxLiveBlogTeam
The town hall has taken a break and will resume in a few minutes.
Any coach knows that calling “time out” is a good strategic move when the other team is on a “run.” When “play” resumed nothing changed. Bernie continued to score as the conversation moved on to other subjects. Score a victory for Bernie and put up a goose egg for Fox. Next at bat is Amy Klobuchar with Mayor Pete on deck.
