By Adam Pagnucco.
In a fiery eruption caught on video, Congressman David Trone blew up at Fox 5 reporter Tom Fitzgerald over the station’s coverage of his statements about policing. Trone is known to have a temper but this is the first time I have seen it displayed in full while cameras were rolling.
Trone lets Fox 5’s Tom Fitzgerald know what he thinks.
The subject of Trone’s displeasure was Fox 5’s account of this series of posts he had made on X discussing crime and policing:
When I’m out on the trail, I get a lot of questions about how we can reduce crime. I’m committed to comprehensive solutions that address the root causes, not just the symptoms. A lot of times that’s poverty, educational gaps, and lack of job opportunities.
We also have to face a hard truth: Our criminal justice system is systemically racist and therefore, it doesn’t work for everybody, and things like increased police presence don’t make everyone feel safer. We must work to rebuild trust between communities and law enforcement.
We’re never going to tackle crime with policing alone. We must also confront poverty, mental health, addiction, and make sure folks have opportunity. That’s what I’ll fight for in the Senate.
In covering the posts, Fox 5’s Tom Fitzgerald emphasized Trone’s statements on racism and carried criticism of them, including from his opponents, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and former Governor Larry Hogan. Fitzgerald caught up with Trone at an event the next day and their encounter was recorded. Following is embedded video and a transcript.
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Fitzgerald: You got a question about crime. You tweeted about crime yesterday. Could you explain that for us a little more fully?
Trone: I just want to say one thing. You should be ashamed of the journalism you did yesterday. You had twenty lines…
Fitzgerald: I should be ashamed?
Trone: No, you should be ashamed. We had a twenty line tweet…
Fitzgerald: I’m not ashamed, Congressman.
Trone: …That was very thoughtful and you took one line out of twenty. You took… You! You took one line out of twenty and you should be ashamed of that type of journalism. And shame on Fox. Fox needs to do, step up and do real journalism and you didn’t do it there.
Fitzgerald: I did the story, Fox didn’t.
Trone: You were shilling for Larry Hogan. So keep shilling for Larry Hogan.
Fitzgerald: We spoke with Angela Alsobrooks.
Trone: If you want to do that, feel free to shill. But that’s all I’ve got to say. Go back and read the whole section of tweets. It was very supportive of our police.
Fitzgerald: We did.
Trone: No you didn’t. You didn’t. And you’re just making it up.
Fitzgerald: I did read all three.
Trone: And you’re just making it up. So thank you.
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Pagnucco: Boy has it been a long campaign!