Annalena Baerbock gave an interview to Fox News. The right-wing US station that made Trump great and made his lies popular. What was she thinking?
The right-wing US broadcaster Fox News had asked Annalena Baerbock several times. This time it worked. The German Foreign Minister agreed to give a live interview to the very television channel that once made Donald Trump famous.
Fox News is also the channel that spread Trump’s lies about mass voter fraud to millions of American people after the last presidential election. He even had to pay a heavy fine because of his false claims about allegedly manipulated voting machines. The station is owned by the influential US media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
So why did Annalena Baerbock agree to give an interview to this controversial broadcaster? Isn’t she taking part in the normalization of populists?
A new strategy in the Foreign Office
This time, the German Foreign Minister agreed to an interview request from the broadcaster because she believes that in this way she can reach the large proportion of Americans with her message who do not vote for the Democrats and who do not watch the left-wing channels CNN, NBC or ABC.
The Fox News interview is the preliminary conclusion of a foreign policy strategy with which the German Foreign Minister traveled to the USA. This ran like a common thread through her first three days: whether in Texas with Republican Governor Greg Abbott, whether with the conservative senators and congressmen who she met for discussions in the Capitol in Washington or on Fox News live on Thursday evening.
In short, the strategy was: get out of your comfort zone. Away from the democratic feel-good events. Also away from the urban coastal cities. Towards those forces that could pose a threat to German interests in the world, i.e. the Republicans and their voters in the more rural areas of America. Also to people for whom the spending on Ukraine has long been too high and who, with “America First”, are more likely to go into isolationism and leave Europe to fend for itself.
Sounds good, but what’s the point?
That’s the plan. But can it also rise? To be honest, Fox News is no longer the most extreme channel on the right-wing spectrum in the USA. Other channels such as Newsmaxx or RSBN openly position themselves as right-wing extremists and conspiracy theories. The two moderators who interviewed Baerbock on Thursday evening are also of a rather harmless caliber at Fox News. Your questions were extremely friendly and open. The Foreign Minister never came under pressure and was able to simply get her messages across.
The people you spoke to in Congress in the previous hours also belonged predominantly to the Republican faction that is actually clearly in favor of supporting Ukraine. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell regularly pressured the Biden administration to do too little for Ukraine. Fighter jets were first and foremost demanded by the Republicans. But even the talks with these more moderate Republicans represent a feat of strength for the German Foreign Minister, as their positions are far apart in many other areas, such as climate policy. From a German perspective, they are still important because they may still have influence on the more radical part of the party.
China is the lure for the USA
Annalena Baerbock’s strongest argument among Republicans and their voters regarding support for Ukraine is China. The Secretary of State mentioned this to Greg Abbott, to the senators in the Capitol and then publicly to Fox News. To make this point clear, she even dropped a diplomatic bombshell in the middle of the interview: “If Putin won this war, what kind of sign would that be?” Baerbock asked rhetorically and continued: “What kind of sign would that be? the other dictators in the world like Xi, the Chinese president?” For this reason, according to Baerbock, Ukraine must win this war. And we have to fight to ensure that the rules-based order is maintained.
