Chris Wallace Hosting Second Fox News Town Hall with Pete Buttigieg

Fox News will host a second town hall with former Mayor Pete Buttigieg, the network announced on Tuesday.

The town hall will be moderated by Fox News host Chris Wallace in Des Moines, Iowa, and will be aired live on the Fox News Channel on January 26th.

New: @PeteButtigieg will sit down with Chris Wallace for a Fox News town hall—the candidate’s second—in Des Moines on Jan. 26. pic.twitter.com/eX5UmC9wzn

— Adam Wren (@adamwren) January 7, 2020

Wallace said in a statement:

We are pleased to host Mayor Buttigieg for the second time this election cycle for a timely town hall in the influential state of Iowa. Once again, we are looking forward to providing our millions of viewers with an insightful discussion ahead of the first major contest of the primary season.

Buttigieg participated in an earlier town hall with Wallace in May 2018, which helped catapult him to the national spotlight.

While many Democrats criticized Buttigieg for talking to Fox News, the mayor defended the event as an important way to reach Fox viewers.

“There are a lot of Americans who my party can’t blame if they are ignoring our message because they will never hear it if we don’t go on and talk about it,” Buttigieg said. 

Fox viewers were critical that Buttigieg personally smeared Fox News opinion hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham during the event, with little pushback from Wallace.

“I mean, you got Tucker Carlson saying immigrants make America dirty; when you’ve got Laura Ingraham comparing detention centers with children in cages to summer camps…” Buttigieg said, calling Fox News a difficult outlet to justify working with.

“There is a reason why anybody has to swallow hard or think twice before participating in this media ecosystem,” he said.