During an hour-long conversation with moderator Chris Wallace, Buttigieg tried to distinguish between Fox News’s reporters and its opinion hosts. The latter, he said, were “not always there in good faith.”

Specifically, he called out Tucker Carlson for saying that immigrants made the United States “dirtier,” as well as Laura Ingraham, who once compared detention centers for migrant children to summer camps.

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

Buttigieg confronted Fox News on their court to their faces while giving an explanation for why he still showed up that separates him from his Democratic opponents and appears consistent with his entire approach to campaigning.

“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 [Fox] and talk about it," he said.