CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC anchors say they have not been able to book a Republican lawmaker to defend President Donald Trump's controversial comments about the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA Today reported.
"Our booking team reached out to Republicans of all stripes across the country [Wednesday]," Fox News' Shepard Smith said. "Let's be honest. Republicans don't mind coming on Fox News channel. We couldn't get anyone to come and defend him here. We thought in balance, someone should do that. We worked very hard at it throughout the day. We were unsuccessful."
Trump doubled down Tuesday on his initial statements about Charlottesville, saying "both sides" were responsible and asking, "what about the alt-left that came charging at, as you say, at the alt-right?"
Chuck Todd of MSNBC said all 52 Republican Senators turned down an invitation to appear on his show, while CNN's Wolf Blitzer of "The Situation Room" said his efforts were also unsuccessful.
"We invited every single Republican senator on this program tonight, all 52," Todd said. "We asked roughly a dozen house Republicans including a bunch of committee chairs, and we asked a half-dozen officials and none of them agreed to discuss this issue with us [Wednesday]."
Said Blitzer: "We did reach out to Republican leaders throughout the day. They all, at least for now, refused to join us, but the invitation is clearly still very much open."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.