President Obama, Fox News hosts in war of words over Obama’s Rolling Stone comments on network

DENVER – President Barack Obama and Fox News personalities are in a war of words after the president criticized the 24-hour network for its role in the election in a recent interview with Rolling Stone.

The magazine asked Obama in the interview, released Monday, if he still thought the U.S. was “a progressive country.”

Obama responded by saying Democrats had trouble this election getting working-class white voters who cast ballots for him to do the same for Hillary Clinton. Many of the votes went to Donald Trump.

“I think that part of it has to do with our inability, our failure, to reach those voters effectively,” Obama told Rolling Stone. “Part of it is Fox News in every bar and restaurant in big chunks of the country, but part of it is also Democrats not working at a grassroots level, being in there, showing up, making arguments.”

“We spend a lot of time focused on international policy and national policy and less time being on the ground,” Obama continued.

Fox News is the top-rated cable network and is extremely popular with conservatives, though the median age of its demographic is 68, according to Quartz.

Fox News personalities have lashed back at Obama’s statements since they were released. Politico has documented some of their statements.

Howard Kurtz said Obama was “scapegoating” the network; Eric Bolling pointed out that Democrats rarely come on the network, and Megyn Kelly said Obama “just wants to lament that the middle of the country is watching” Fox News.