Former Trump adviser absent at Newsmax after criticism of vaccine mandates clashed with right-wing media policies, report says

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Rally attendees hold placards protesting vaccines during the “Global Freedom Rally,” an anti-mask and anti-vaccine rally, at the State House in Concord, New Hampshire on May 15, 2021. JOSEPH PREZIOSO / AFP via Getty Images

Newsmax host Steve Cortes is leaving the right-wing network, sources told The Daily Beast.

The news comes after a report that Newsmax was making COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for employees.

Cortes had tweeted saying he would not comply with any vaccine warrant.

Newsmax host Steve Cortes, who served as an adviser to former President Donald Trump, is leaving the right-wing network six months after joining it, according to a Daily Beast report on Friday.

Cortes, whose show airs at 9 p.m. ET, could leave early next week, five sources told the outlet.

The news comes after comments Cortes made about vaccine warrants clashed directly with reports of a vaccine warrant at Newsmax.

Earlier this month, Mediaite reported that Newsmax sent a company-wide email announcing that it was instituting a vaccine mandate for employees in order to comply with Biden’s administration rules. Shortly after the news broke, Cortes took to Twitter to attack the warrants and insist he would not comply.

“I will not comply with any attempt by any organization to enforce Biden’s wayward, unscientific medical apartheid mandate. I will not be forced into the injection, nor will I disclose my immunization status. “, he wrote. “No one should be forced to choose between medical confidentiality and their job.”

Sources told the Daily Beast that comments about the vaccine were only one reason the host’s relationship with the network deteriorated. The sources also cited notes from his show and his insistence on unsubstantiated fraud allegations in the 2020 election.

A current Newsmax employee told the store that Cortes was “a constant risk” due to a tendency to make controversial or inflammatory statements.

Cortes and Newsmax did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

Cortes worked as an advisor to Trump during his 2020 campaign and was also a CNN contributor.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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