New book accuses Fox News of giving Trump town hall questions in advance
A new book accuses a Fox News insider of leaking questions to Donald Trump ahead of a town hall event hosted by the conservative network in early 2024.
In January, Trump was the featured guest for a town hall in Des Moines, Iowa, as part of the network’s “Democracy ’24” programming. But according to the book “Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power” by Politico reporter Alex Isenstadt, Trump and his team knew what questions would be asked by Fox hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.
Isenstadt writes, “About thirty minutes before the town hall was due to start, a senior aide started getting text messages from a person on the inside at Fox. Holy s–t, the team thought. They were images of all the questions Trump would be asked and the planned follow-ups, down to the exact wording. Jackpot. This was like a student getting a peek at the test before the exam started.”
Isenstadt reports that with questions in hand, the Trump team was able to come up with “workshopped answers” that would make the candidate appear confident and capable. For context, this debate occurred as Trump was being challenged for the party nomination by figures like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Gov. Nikki Haley.
The book reports that among the subjects Trump knew to expect was a question about how he would balance governing with plans for “retribution.”
And in fact, Baier asked Trump, “There are questions about how much a second term of a Donald Trump presidency, second term, would be about retribution and looking backwards in grievances and how much would be looking forward?”
Trump’s response? “I’m not going to have time for retribution. We’re going to make this country so successful again, I’m not going to have time for retribution and remember this, our ultimate retribution is success.”
After CNN reported on the leak allegation, Fox told the outlet they “take these matters very seriously” and “plan to investigate should there prove to be a breach within the network.”
Ironically, a few months later in September, after Trump had secured the nomination and lost his debate to Vice President Kamala Harris, he and other conservative commentators falsely alleged that Harris had been given her questions ahead of time.
The made-up story was given so much credence by conservatives that Pennsylvania Rep. Dan Meuser said he planned to bring representatives from debate host ABC to Congress as part of a probe into the matter.
Isenstadt’s book also reports that the Fox host who Meuser was speaking to, Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo, was being considered by Trump to be his running mate. Bartiromo was one of Fox’s biggest promoters of the lie that the 2020 election was stolen by Democrats. Ultimately Trump instead went with Sen. JD Vance to be his running mate—and like Bartiromo, Vance repeatedly lied in service of Trump’s political ambitions.
Despite the network’s purported surprise at the alleged leak, Fox has been joined at the hip with Trump for years and in fact the network played a vital role in building him up as a political figure after years on entertainment television. Fox promotes Trump and tears down his rivals and that relationship is certain to endure for years to come.