Fox News says it has 'addressed' its stars stumping for Trump, but won't say how November 6 at 2:28 PM Fox News says it isnât...
November 6 at 2:28 PM
Fox News says it isnât happy with two of its stars, Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro, openly campaigning in President Trumpâs behalf, but it wonât say what, if anything, itâs doing about it.
The network issued a statement Tuesday saying it âdoes not condoneâ any of its hosts participating in campaign events, as Hannity and Pirro did Monday night during a Trump rally in Missouri. The statement added, âThis was an unfortunate distraction and has been addressed.â
Addressed how? Fox didnât say in its statement, and a representative offered no further comment.
On Monday, Hannity assured his nearly 4 million Twitter followers that he would not join Trump on stage for his rally in Cape Girardeau, Mo., and that he would not campaign with him. While the Trump team described him as a âspecial guest,â the top-rated host mai ntained that he was simply covering the presidentâs final rally for his show. âSomething I have done in every election in the past,â he added.
About 12 hours later, though, he delivered a lengthy campaign advertisement for the president, and for the Republican Party, and then joined Trump onstage to recite his achievements and thank him. âPromises made, promises kept,â said Hannity, echoing the presidentâs campaign slogan.
Hannity also pointed to the press corral at the rally and added, âBy the way, all those people in the back are fake news.â The press contingent included reporters and producers from Fox News, which was covering the rally.

President Trump greets Fox talk show host Sean Hannity at a rally in Cape Girardeau, Mo.i on Monday. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
Hannity tried to clean up both his br oken promise not to campaign for Trump and his apparent insult of his own networkâs journalists in a tweet Tuesday: âWhat I said in my tweet yesterday was 100% truthful,â he wrote. âWhen the POTUS invited me on stage to give a few remarks last night, I was surprised, yet honored by the presidentâs request. This was NOT planned. And to be clear, I was not referring to my journalist colleagues at FOX News in those remarks. They do amazing work day in and day out in a fair and balanced way and It is an honor to work with such great professionals.â
Pirro also appeared at the rally but had no comment about it afterward.
Hannity has been a close Trump ally and has assiduously cultivated the presidentâs approval â" sometimes to the point of going beyond Foxâs rules banning such close association with a political figure.
In 2016, he appeared in a promotional video for Trumpâs campaign, enumerating his reasons for supporting the Republican candidate, f rom his plan to âput originalists on the Supreme Courtâ to his promise to âvet refugees.â
Since then, Hannity has not just backed the presidentâs agenda. He has also parroted his rhetoric. For instance, he has denounced journalists for presenting an unvarnished view of the administration.
Mondayâs rally was in Cape Girardeau, a small city on the banks of the Mississippi River that is the hometown of radio host Rush Limbaugh. The local fixture â" and hero of the conservative base â" appeared at the rally as well. Trump on Monday also called in to the radio show hosted by right-wing commentator Mark Levin, underscoring his ability to circumvent the traditional news media as he made his closing pitch to voters.
But it was a set of unscripted interactions between Trump and his allies at Fox that was most striking, turning his final midterms appearance into a display of the White Houseâs unique alliance with the conservative-leaning news channel. The cocoon of right-wing media rose around Trump as voters prepared to go to the polls to deliver a verdict on the first two years of his presidency.
Trump has been overtly hostile to the mainstream media but has a cozy relationship with Fox, prompting criticism that he sees the news channel as state TV.
Some at the network bristle at this suggestion. Martha MacCallum, who is set to co-anchor the networkâs live election coverage Tuesday night alongside fellow anchor Bret Baier, told the Philadelphia Inquirer this week that it was a misconception to see Fox as âstate-run television.â Baier told the New Yorker earlier in the year that it âpainsâ him to hear the network described this way.
Most vocal in dissenting from the pro-Trump line has been Shepard Smith, who last week took the administration to task for fearmongering in discussing the caravan of Central American migrants heading toward the southern border, telling his viewers: âThere is no invasion. No oneâs coming to get you. Thereâs nothing at all to worry about.â
But Mondayâs rally was awash with evidence that the president sees some of Foxâs most visible personalities as surrogates in his political crusade. And, perhaps even more notably, the event illustrated their willingness to fulfill that function.
Despite his assurance that he wouldnât join the president on the stump, Hannity spent the time before he went live posing for selfies with audience members and revving up the crowd. And after a fact-challenged opening monologue touting the presidentâs accomplishments â" the tax measure approved last year was not the âsingle biggest middle-class tax cut in American historyâ â" Hannity engaged Trump in a 10-minute back-and-forth about the success of his administration and the weakness of his Democratic critics.
Hannity told Trump how popular he was among his supporters.
âI went out there an hour before the show, and the crowd i s electric,â he said. âEvery hat I signed . . . every hat was soaking wet. Thereâs a bigger crowd outside than there is inside.â
His only complaint? That the president had missed his opening monologue.
Not so, Trump comforted him.
âNo, I saw it on the plane,â he said. âActually, I saw it on the plane. I never miss your opening monologue. I would never do that.â
At the end of the conversation, billed by Fox as a âpowerful interview,â Laura Ingraham, another host and Trump proponent, was standing by for her 10 p.m. slot. âWant to say hi to the president?â Hannity asked her.
She did and was promptly informed by Trump that he was âvery proud of her.â Feigning jealousy that Ingraham got âall the compliments,â Hannity turned to Trump and issued compliments of his own, telling the president, âI donât think anyone has your energy level.â
After the dialogue, Bill Shine, the Fox executive turned White House commun ications director, gave Hannity a high-five, according to a White House pool report. In 2010, when Fox learned that the tea party was advertising Hannityâs appearance at a fundraising event, the network barred him from attending. The network executive who explained why he had been barred â" saying political activists were âcharging for access to Seanâ â" was none other than Shine.
Once on stage, Trump wasted no time trotting out his allies at Fox.
âI have a few people that are right out here. And theyâre very special. Theyâve done an incredible job for us. Theyâve been with us from the beginning,â he said.
âIâm going to start by saying Sean Hannity, come on up â" Sean Hannity,â Trump said. Supporters clapped and waved.
They embraced, and Trump gestured for Hannity to take the podium â" not a typical position for a television host who interviews the president. The Fox host raised his eyebrows and pointed to the lectern featuring t he presidential seal. Trump urged him forward, adjusting the microphone. âI had no idea you were going to invite me up here,â Hannity said, before attacking the media and praising the president for following through on his campaign commitments. âMr. President, thank you,â he concluded.
Next came Pirro, host of Foxâs âJustice With Judge Jeanineâ and the author of âLiars, Leakers and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy.â Trump singled her out, he said, because she âtreats us very, very well.â He told the audience: âSheâs my friend, and sheâs your friend â" Justice Jeanine.â
Although she has a law degree and has served on the Westchester County Court in New York, Pirro has no experience that would warrant the title âjustice,â applie d to members of an appeals or supreme court. She took the podium and exhorted audience members to usher their family members and friends to the polls to vote for Republican candidates.
Source: Google News | Netizen 24 United States
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