Axelrod and Ailes Get Coffee

Olive branch or declaration of war? White House senior adviser David Axelrod and Fox News head Roger Ailes chatted over coffee two weeks ago, Politico reports. The unlikely pair quietly arranged the "cordial conversation" while the president was in Manhattan visiting the United Nations. The administration is a bit miffed at Fox's extensive coverage of Obama critics, Politico reports, and to show their displeasure, Fox News Sunday was left off the list of Sunday talk shows the president granted interviews to this month. Not one to take a snub lying down, Fox declined to cover Obama's recent speech to a joint session of Congress and his recent prime-time news conference, citing coverage on other channels. Though details from the Ailes-Axelrod conversation are few, The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder speculates that a comment Axelrod made last week about a “very significant figure” on the right who believed Obama was conspiring “to start a national police force” could have been about Ailes.