Since the very beginning of his candidacy, Donald Trump and Fox News have had a close and convivial relationship. The bond is so strong, in fact, that Trump recently used the word, “we,” when referring to the network.
The ties between the network and the president were even mentioned in the Mueller Report. According to the FBI, Trump’s team asked Fox to cut certain segments out of an interview he had done with Maria Bartiromo.
The section in the report was uncovered by reporter Laura Rozen. During the 2017 interview, Trump was asked if it was too late for James Comey to step down. The president replied, “No it’s not too late, but you know, I still have confidence in him. We’ll see what happens. You know, it’s going to be interesting.”
seems Trump WH tells Fox what to cut from their interviews. But Trump wants it in (fed them the question?) seemngly to pressure Comey. FN373 pic.twitter.com/EiQVXCBocK
— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) April 20, 2019
The Mueller report then writes that former Trump aide, Hope Hicks, thought that this question should be removed. Per the report:
“After the interview, Hicks told the president she thought the president’s comment about Comey should be removed from the broadcast of the interview, but the President wanted to keep it in, which Hicks thought was unusual.”
Eventually the question was cut when the interview was broadcast.
This is not the first time Fox News has been accused of protecting Trump. In March of this year, The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer reported on Rupert Murdoch’s alleged killing of the Stormy Daniels story. Hosts of the network are also credited with having an outside influence on Trump’s decision making. Sean Hannity recently used his platform to encourage the President to carry out the government shutdown through the State of the Union.