Biden doesn’t want to ‘fight’ Fox News, White House press secretary says

White House secretary Jen Psaki has said that the Biden administration does not want to “fight” Fox News, saying the administration needs to reach its audience amid the pandemic.

In an appearance on Monday on Snapchat’s news programme Good Luck America, Ms Psaki was asked why a Democrat should engage with Fox News.

“Well, first we don’t do a lot of the personalities on Fox," the press secretary said in response, before noting that Joe Biden’s “number one goal still is beating the pandemic.”

“Our objective is to put people back to work, and we need to talk to Fox and Fox viewers in order to do that,” Ms Psaki elaborated.

She continued: “Now, they are not waiting for the president, the vice president, me, other people from the administration to tell them what to do, but they might listen to medical experts or some of our doctors, they might.

“There might be information that strikes them because it’s so fact-based, if we convey it to Fox, that they may hear that."

Ms Psaki said that the administration did not have to approve of everything the often-times controversial broadcaster does “editorially” or what their “personalities say and do”.

The administration official stipulated that the right-wing outlet is “still a platform for us to communicate with the public”.

"And frankly, the other piece of it is getting in a fight with Fox News at this point in time for the administration isn’t particularly constructive,” Ms Psaki said.

The White House secretary then made a dig at the Trump White House, saying the US had come out of an administration that “completely destroyed trust in media, trust in institutions.”

“That’s not the fight we want to fight right now, right?,” Ms Psaki said. “We want to fight a fight about getting the pandemic under control and things that actually impact people’s lives.”

This week, both Sean Hannity and Steve Doocy urged viewers to get vaccinated against the virus, with Mr Biden appearing to infer that hosts have had what he described as an “altar call”.

Last week, Mr Hannity told viewers he believed “in the science of vaccinations” while Mr Doocy urged viewers: “If you have the chance, get the shot, it will save your life.”

The messaging came as a stark contrast to the attitudes of personalities on the network such as Tucker Carlson who has often fielded criticism for their anti-vaccination sentiments.

The Independent has contacted Fox News for comment.