In the first of two Super Tuesday 4 editions of FNC’s The Five, co-host Juan Williams sought to admit the obvious that much of the media has become obsessed with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, but he didn’t employ such a term and instead awkwardly asserted that “[w]e’re all attracted to Donald Trump.”
Williams led into the aforementioned claim by retelling a soundbite that he had seen earlier on the Fox Business Network where “some guy from Pennsylvania saying he was a former Democrat and he was seeing more Democrats now shifting over to the Republican side in order to vote for Trump.”
Speaking directly to fellow co-host Eric Bolling (and someone who’s always been kind to Trump), Williams observed that Trump has given credence to “a lot of this populism, a lot of the energy coming from people who are attracted to the GOP by Donald Trump.”
As opposed to stopping there with the voters, Williams extended his rosy terminology to the media and news consumers: “I mean it's the same with us in the media. We're all attracted to Donald Trump and you as the viewers, you’re all attracted — you watch whenever we put Donald Trump on the screen. That's great news for the Republicans right now.”
Bolling fired back that this also means Trump will “open up the map” for Republicans to win in November, but Williams thoroughly disagreed: “I've told you this before that this has happened before, and what happens is you go to the primaries to the general and then it just dissipates. There's no evidence that this is an indicator of what's to come. It's not predictive.”
The relevant portion of the transcript from FNC’s The Five on April 26 can be found below.
FNC’s The Five
April 26, 2016
5:06 p.m. Eastern
JUAN WILLIAMS: In fact, I was just watching, it was on the Fox Business Network. There was some guy from Pennsylvania saying he was a former Democrat and he was seeing more Democrats now shifting over to the Republican side in order to vote for Trump, so that would bolster your point that you see a lot of this populism, a lot of the energy coming from people who are attracted to the GOP by Donald Trump and by — I mean it's the same with us in the media. We're all attracted to Donald Trump and you as the viewers, you’re all attracted — you watch whenever we put Donald Trump on the screen. That's great news for the Republicans right now.
ERIC BOLLING: Doesn't that open up the map then? If that happens in a general election? The same thing — doesn’t it?
WILLIAMS: I've told you this before that this has happened before, and what happens is you go to the primaries to the general and then it just dissipates. There's no evidence that this is an indicator of what's to come. It's not predictive.
