Bernie Sanders Promised to Run as a Democrat – Yet He’s Ignoring the DNC’s Fox News Ban and Agreeing to Do Their Town Hall

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) once again announced this year he’s running for president – as a Democrat. To do so this time, as opposed to 2016, he was forced to agree to several new Democratic National Committee (DNC) rules designed to ensure the party, its platforms, its assets, tools, voter rolls, and donations are used to support a Democratic candidate.

Those new rules, adopted last June, call for “good faith” participation as a Democrat.

Within weeks of declaring his run as a Democrat he did not change his party affiliation, but he did file to run for re-election for his current U.S. Senate seat in 2024 – as an independent.

And now Senator Sanders has just agreed to appear in a Fox News town hall. It’s not a violation of the DNC’s decision to refuse to allow Fox News to host Democratic primary debates, but it certainly comes close to crossing the line in spirit.

Explaining “Why it matters,” Axios reports: “Earlier this year, the Democratic National Committee barred Fox News from hosting any of its primary debates, after a New Yorker investigation shed light on the extent of the network’s ties to the Trump administration. Sanders and Hillary Clinton appeared together in one Fox News town hall during the 2016 election.”

That New Yorker investigation also revealed the extent to which Fox News is shaping American politics – and the White House itself.

There is also the news that then-Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes may have given then-candidate Donald Trump some questions in advance of one of the presidential debates.

Sen. Sanders may not be doing himself any favors. Fox News regularly mocks the independent Vermont Senator. On its YouTube channel, for example, its run videos titled, “Can this old fella get the nomination, if his beliefs are an abomination?” That video’s description reads: “Add Bernie Sanders to the island of oddities looking for the Democratic nomination.”

Meanwhile, the Fox News website has stories like, “Bernie Sanders cuts head on shower door.”