Joe Biden might think he can tightly control his campaign messaging, but Fox News just let him know today that he has another thing coming.

Last night, I wrote about a threatening letter sent to the cable news outlet from Biden’s campaign warning them not to run a new ad from the Trump campaign on the Ukraine issue that will soon be airing in key early voting states as part of a massive ad blitz.

To recap, here’s what Biden’s team said in the letter:

In a letter to Fox News and Fox Business general counsel Lily Claffee, Biden campaign manager Greg Schultz wrote that the ad “falsely states” that “Biden offered Ukraine $1 billion to fire the prosecutor investigating a company affiliated with his son.”
[…]
“Though the Trump campaign is prepared to fabricate outright lies, your station’s airwaves should not be used to disseminate them,” Schultz wrote. “We are putting you on notice about the absolute falsity of the advertisement’s claims, and we expect that you will reject it. Please consider this letter a standing request that you reject any advertisement containing similar claims, regardless whether the Trump campaign or a third-party group seeks to place it.”

For those of you who haven’t seen it, here’s the ad:

CNN announced earlier this week they would not be running the ad, in deference to the Biden campaign in part because it disparages several of their news personalities, including Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon, and Jim Acosta.

Fox News has since issued a statement in response to the Biden campaign letting them know they will not bow to threats:

“We are not in the business of censoring ads from candidates on either side of the aisle. Vice President Joe Biden has a standing invitation to appear on any of our platforms.”

This isn’t the first time in recent weeks that Joe Biden has attempted to flex some muscle with cable news outlets in hopes of suppressing the Ukraine story.

Last week, Red State’s streiff wrote about how the Biden campaign was attempting to intimidate cable news networks into keeping President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani off their airwaves, alleging he we was “spread[ing] false, debunked conspiracy theories on behalf of Donald Trump.”

Read the full letter below:

NEW: Team BIDEN just sent letter to every major TV news network, calling for RUDY to be kept off the airwaves. “He will knowingly and willingly lie,” letter says. pic.twitter.com/7oGQ4b3f4X

— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) September 29, 2019

Even if Biden happened to be successful in shutting down Giuliani from the airwaves and the Trump ad from Fox News, the fact remains that Trump himself will not be quiet about it and will continue to raise the issue into the general election campaign season, assuming Biden ends up being the nominee.

Stay tuned.

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— Based in North Carolina, Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter. –