Fox News Channel has been widely described as providing biased reporting in favor of conservative political positions,[38][39][40][41][42][43][44] the Republican Party[45][46][47] and President Donald Trump.[48][49][50][51][52] Political scientist Jonathan Bernstein described Fox News as an expanded part of the Republican Party.[45][47] Political scientists Matt Grossmann and David A. Hopkins wrote that Fox News helped "Republicans communicate with their base and spread their ideas, and they have been effective in mobilizing voters to participate in midterm elections (as in 2010 and 2014)."[45] Prior to 2000, Fox News lacked an ideological tilt, and had more Democrats watch the channel than Republicans.[53] During the 2004 presidential election, Fox News was markedly more hostile in its coverage of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, and distinguished itself among cable news outlets for heavy coverage of the Swift Boat smear campaign against Kerry.[54][55][56] During President Obama's first term in office, Fox News helped launch and amplify the Tea Party movement, a conservative movement within the Republican party that organized protests against Obama and his policies.[38][44][57][58][59][60][61]