On Tuesday, former President Donald Trump won New Hampshire’s primary by a whopping 11 points, widening his lead in the Republican presidential nomination contest over challenger Nikki Haley.
However, some stars on Fox News have described the former president as underperforming when compared to the incumbent president — and Trump fired back.
The former president slammed Fox News as worse than MSNBC. He called the liberal network “BETTER THAN FOX.”
Fox News host Martha McCallum called Trump’s position as a “quasi-incumbency.”
“If you treat him like an incumbent, he should be around 80, 84%, right?” McCallum said. “He should have almost all the Republican votes, but he’s not. And he’s running against people who are giving him a little bit of a run for his money.”
Co-host Brit Hume agreed.
“If you think of him as an incumbent, this showing tonight’s weak, right?” Hume said.
“I mean, he should be doing better. And it’s also a sign of weakness that the independents and others who voted in this primary were unwelcomed, not welcomed by the Trump campaign and by a lot of his supporters. The idea being, of course, we wouldn’t want them to be the kind of a party and a candidate that draws in people from the other party. So, there’s a certain insane political logic at work here. But there’s weakness there with Trump. There’s no doubt about it.”
Fox News contributor Kayleigh McEnany even offered Trump some advice.
“To get her out of the race, I would suggest that adopting a general election tone is what you do at this point,” McEnany said. “Nikki Haley? I mean, the closest margin is 30 percent in the state ahead. For all intents and purposes, he’s the presumptive nominee.”
McEnany, Trump’s former White House press secretary, went on to make an unfavorable comparison between Trump and Biden.
She said —
This was actually a fairly good night for Joe Biden. When you look at our voter analysis, only 10% said, ‘I would not vote for Biden if he was the nominee. He won a plurality of voters who said he was too old. He won a majority of voters who were upset about the Gaza War. So, the divides in the Democrat Party — and this is a small sample size — but perhaps aren’t as stark as one would think.
But when you look at the Republican Party, 7 in 10 Haley voters said, ‘I would not vote for Trump.’ There was a Des Moines Register poll. 43 percent said, ‘No, I wouldn’t vote for Trump.’ If I’m Trump, I sit back, and I exclusively focus on the general election. I take the posture of a presumptive nominee. I focus on, No. 1, uniting the party and, No. 2, winning the independents, which Nikki Haley won 55 to 39 percent. That’s what I would do.
Trump quickly hit back. He went on Truth Social to slam the Fox News stars, especially McEnany.
“I don’t need any advice from RINO Kayleigh McEnany on Fox. Just had a GIANT VICTORY over a badly failing candidate, ‘Birdbrain,’ and she’s telling me what I can do better. Save your advice for Nikki,” Trump wrote.
He added, “CNN & MSDNC TREATED MY BIG, DOUBLE DIGIT VICTORY OVER BIRDBRAIN, BETTER THAN FOX.”
Sure enough, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow gave her viewers a “characterization” of the race right after poll closing.
“It is too early to call, but Donald Trump leads,” Maddow said at at 8 o’clock sharp. “That is the characterization at poll closings, at 8 p.m. Eastern.”
Take a look at Trump’s remarks… and the cable news coverage.
Kayleigh: This was actually a fairly good night for Joe Biden. Only 10% said they would not vote for Biden if he was the nominee… When you look at the Republican Party, 7/10 Haley voters said they wouldn’t vote for Trump. pic.twitter.com/UDKXFH543M
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 24, 2024
BREAKING: NBC News projects Joe Biden wins the New Hampshire Democratic primary.
The Republican primary is too early to call, but Donald Trump leads. pic.twitter.com/2ojclzYpbR
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 24, 2024
The Horn editorial team