Fox News has been "moving to the middle, if not to the left" for some time now, long before the decision was made to fire Tucker Carlson, but former President Donald Trump's 2016 victory "stopped it for a while," former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani tells Newsmax.
"I think they thought Trump was going to lose, and I think they wanted Trump to lose," Giuliani, who has served as an attorney for the former president, said on Newsmax's "Rob Schmitt Tonight" on Wednesday. "The idea that they helped Trump that much is not really as accurate as some people think. First of all, the president himself feels differently about it."
He pointed out that in the first Fox News debate in the 2016 cycle, Megyn Kelly, who also is no longer at Fox, "came after [Trump] with that complex 19-part question that he was the worst womanizer in the history of the world. She's a brilliant woman and a great journalist, and I admire her … that question was just a loaded question, intended to take him out."
And with Carlson, it was "leaked out" that Carlson thought he was "bigger" than Fox, Giuliani said, referring to comments made on Sky News Australia about Carlson.
"I think Fox thinks they're bigger than the world," Giuliani said.
Giuliani also said Wednesday that Fox News has been "floating to a very large extent" since the former chair Roger Ailes left the network.
Ailes resigned as chair and CEO of Fox News in 2016 after a sexual harassment lawsuit was filed against him by a former anchor.
Giuliani on Newsmax referred to Ailes as "probably one of the great geniuses" behind modern cable television news.
But without Ailes, "Fox doesn't know what it is anymore, and it has its audience somewhat fooled that it's a right-wing station," said Giuliani. "It isn't, and it plays to the cocktail party crowd to a large extent."
He added that Fox has "dirty tricks" that they "play on their employees. That kind of disgusted me a little bit."
Giuliani also told Schmitt that he thinks Fox News has been "spoiled," including when "they got rid of" former star Bill O'Reilly, who was "at the top of the world. O'Reilly was the Tucker of his day. They got away with it, and five weeks later, they're on top again."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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