Faced with new reports damaging to their top-billed viewer, the hosts of “Fox & Friends” decided to go an odd route Friday morning: assume their audience isn’t interested.
A New York Times report published late Thursday and quickly confirmed by Fox News and other media said President Donald Trump attempted to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller in June, alleging conflicts of interest in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump backed off after White House counsel Donald McGahn threatened to quit, saying the firing would have a “catastrophic” effect, the Times reported.
“It’s something we have to tell you about because it is a headline in The New York Times,” co-host Ainsley Earhardt said on “Fox & Friends” before dismissing the news.
“What do you think about that? Do ya even care?” she asked.
Earhardt and her co-hosts didn’t mention that their own network confirmed the report. Instead, they immediately brought out video showing Trump denying the story.
“Fake news, folks, fake news. Typical New York Times fake news story,” the president, a well-known fan of “Fox & Friends,” said from Davos, Switzerland.
Co-host Pete Hegseth said the story “screams of a leak from the special counsel.”
Fox’s Sean Hannity had the same problem on his show when the story broke Thursday night.