Former presidential adviser Dick Morris told Newsmax on Monday that Fox News is doing everything it can to create a GOP primary fight opposing Donald Trump — from ignoring the former president to promoting a candidacy for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Morris, who outlines the strategy in his newly released book, "The Return: Trump's Big 2024 Comeback," said it's part of a larger strategy by the Democrats to sully Trump and change Fox News from conservative-leaning to liberal-oriented.
"They've censored, they switched Fox News from Republican to Democrat, and they are now basically … Newsmax is the only organ that's covering Trump," Morris said on "John Bachman Now."
"And in the meantime, Fox is doing everything it can to promote DeSantis. He's on the air all the time. They say nice things about him. Trump hasn't been on for three-and-a-half months, and this is because the … Democrats are scared to death of Trump, and they know they have to try to beat him in the primary."
Morris likened the circumstances to the 1980 Democratic Party primary, when then-Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., challenged incumbent President Jimmy Carter.
The bitter campaign resulted in a 51%-41% victory for Ronald Reagan in the general election and a 489-49 win in the Electoral College, one of the most lopsided in history.
"And that's what they want to do to Trump," Morris said. "As to why Fox News is playing ball with them, that's more complicated."
Morris suggested a personal motivation for Fox News Chairman Rupert Murdoch and his sons, James and Lachlan.
"I think it relates to a desire for social acceptance," Morris said. "I think that they want to go to the cocktail parties. I think they're tired of being ostracized as the odd man out in the news industry.
"And the ostracism is in the Hamptons, it's on Nantucket, and all of the places the rich and famous congregate, and he [Murdoch] is determined to overcome that. He's determined to make Fox News like CNN until that vacant space that CNN is more or less vacated by its low ratings."
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