President Donald Trump will sit for an interview with Fox News Channel host Chris Wallace despite several bouts of criticism that the two have publicly traded.
The president is scheduled to talk to Wallace on July 19 and is expected to be asked about his administration’s response to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, the Republican National Convention, and the presidential election. The last time Wallace interviewed the president on “FOX News Sunday” was November 2018.
Wallace has made headlines for his criticism of the president, with Bloomberg News dubbing him the “new face of the Trump resistance” at Fox last October (Bloomberg has since edited that headline). The article highlighted his acceptance of Democrats’ narrative on Trump’s call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky; Wallace later went on to say House Democrats, led by Reps. Adam Schiff (CA) and Jerry Nadler (NY), made a “powerful case” for Trump’s impeachment. In March 2019, he suggested that Trump has “given cover” to white supremacists in the aftermath of New Zealand’s Christchurch mass shooting, and in December 2019, he declared, “I believe President Trump is engaged in the most direct, sustained assault on freedom of the press in our history.”
President Trump has repeatedly taken aim at Wallace in response to the anchor’s criticisms. In April, President Trump slammed Fox News and branded Wallace “worse than Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd,” a reference to NBC News Meet the Press host Chuck Todd.
The president tweeted at the time: “Just watched Mike Wallace wannabe, Chris Wallace, on @FoxNews. I am now convinced that he is even worse than Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd of Meet the Press(please!), or the people over at Deface the Nation. What the hell is happening to @FoxNews. It’s a whole new ballgame over there!”
In January, the president slammed Wallace’s reporting on Congress’s impeachment effort, stating that the Fox News host belongs on CNN.
“Chris Wallace and others should be on Fake News CNN or MSDNC. How’s Shep Smith doing? Watch, this will be the beginning of the end for Fox, just like the other two which are dying in the ratings. Social Media is great!” he tweeted at the time.