President Donald Trump escalated his war on Fox News again, slamming anchor Chris Wallace for his coverage of the Ukraine scandal and comparing Wallace unfavorably to his dead father.
Trump tweeted on Sunday: “Somebody please explain to Chris Wallace of Fox, who will never be his father (and my friend), Mike Wallace, that the Phone Conversation I had with the President of Ukraine was a congenial & good one.
“It was only Schiff’s made up version of that conversation that was bad!”
Trump has rejected any wrongdoing during the July call between him and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which has become the basis of an explosive whistleblower complaint that promoted Democrats to launch an impeachment inquiry into Trump.
The White House’s own notes of the call show Trump asking Zelensky to investigate the dealings of Joe Biden, the former US vice president and Trump’s election rival, with Ukraine during the period that his son was on the board of a Ukrainian gas company. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens.
Trump has repeatedly accused Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who is leading the probe into the whistleblower complaint, of treason .
Schiff accused Trump of appearing to do a “classic, mafia-like shakedown” in his dealings with Zelensky.
Trump asked Zelensky to investigate Biden after noting that “we do a lot for Ukraine.”
Wallace’s father, Mike Wallace, died in 2012 at age 93. He was a longtime CBS journalist who interviewed Trump when he was still a businessman, for its “60 Minutes” show.
Mike Wallace Donald Trump
YouTube/CBS News
“And while work often came first for him, over the last 20 years, he worked hard to make connections with his family. He became my best friend. And at the end, he was surrounded by children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren. I already miss him terribly.”
Fox News, long the president’s favorite network, has become the subject of much of his ire in recent months as controversies around him deepen and some poll results have shown a slump in support.
He reportedly fears that the network is not loyal enough to him.
In August, Trump claimed that the network had “changed,” prompting one of its anchors, Bret Baier, to hit back .
Trump said that”Fox is a lot different than it used to be.”
He said: “There’s something going on at Fox, I’ll tell you right now. And I’m not happy with it.”
The network remains the home of some of his closest allies, including some that work as his informal advisers . It often defends even his most controversial policies.