But a series of recent developments—including growing animosity between President Donald Trump and some of the more straight-faced personalities at Fox News—has changed the dynamics of this particular political-media nexus. And it has sparked a renewed argument among Biden allies and White House veterans about how and whether he should engage the network more fully.

For a cadre of top party leaders, the answer is obvious and made all the more apparent by the disappointments Democrats suffered down the ballot this cycle.

“Everyone on our side wonders how 70 million people could have voted for this president with their eyes open,” former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg said in an interview with The Daily Beast. “If they believe these 70 million people are evil, then our country is not going to make it. If, on the other hand, you believe they’re largely working from different information, or so-called information, than the rest of us, then the real problem is not the character of the voters as it is the nature of the information that’s getting to them. Then we have a responsibility to try and change the information they receive.”…

“The train has very much left the station as to whether Fox News will be perceived as legitimate by tens of millions of Americans,” he explained. “That’s over. And it happened without us. The time for starving it of oxygen is long gone.”