Fox News hosts have a Direct Line with Trump at the White House

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Fox News hosts are more influential in the White House than previously known, often acting as shadow advisors to the president on private phone calls. According to a Washington Post report, former President Donald Trump often talks to Fox anchors like Sean Hannity or Judge Jeanine Pirro, who have a direct phone number to contact him at the White House residence, and then pass on their recommendations to his staff.

“There are times when the president comes down the next morning and says, ‘Well, Sean thinks we should do this,’ or, ‘Judge Jeanine thinks we should do this,’” said Grisham, who resigned after the insurgency in January 6, said in the paper. These suggestions from Fox personalities, he said, often frustrate staff as hosts share their thoughts on topics from White House staff to how to frame the president’s message. . Trump will even dial Hannity and former Fox Business host Lou Dobbs at Oval Office staff meetings, a former administration official told The Post. Grisham also recently revealed that on Jan. 6, Trump was “overjoyed” watching the violence take place on television.

Text messages Meadows provided to the committee on Jan. 6 further confirmed the close relationship between the Trump administration and Fox News. The hosts were furiously messaging Meadows, begging him to ask Trump to make a statement to suppress the violence. “Can he give a statement? Ask people to leave the Capitol, ”Hannity wrote on Jan. 6. A few days earlier, the Fox host had pushed Meadows to stop the president from talking about the election, which was wrongly and repeatedly claimed by Trump stolen from him.

“Mark, the president needs to tell the people in the Capitol to go home. It hurts us all. He is destroying his legacy, ”Ingraham texted Meadows on January 6.

Although the coronavirus began to spread in the winter and spring of 2020, Fox News hosts were closely involved with Trump. In March, host Tucker Carlson met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort where he warned the president that Covid-19 could cost him in the election, The Post reported. Trump, however, drone in about how the virus is not as deadly as the flu.

And in April of 2020, Ingraham met with Trump at the White House with two of his regular on-air contributors whom he called a “medicine cabinet.” During the meeting, they pushed hydroxychloroquine, a drug that has since been shown to be an ineffective treatment with Covid. Throughout the spring, Trump mentioned the drug, even claiming in May he was using it as a preventative measure. Thanks in part to Trump’s messaging, as well as Fox News hosts embracing the drug, it is in high demand, leaving patients in need of it – including people with lupus and other autoimmune disorder – scrambling to find it in stock.

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