Report: Fox's Roger Ailes Just Turned On Marco Rubio
Published
Fox News chairman Roger Ailes has reportedly “told people he's lost confidence in [Sen. Marco] Rubio's ability to win” the Republican nomination for president, according to New York magazine's Gabriel Sherman.
Fox News has drawn criticism from other Republican candidates for favoring the Florida senator throughout the presidential primaries. Sherman's report comes just a day before the Republican candidates will face off in a debate on Fox's airwaves.
Shortly before Sherman's report was published, Fox host Sean Hannity, who has expressed support for all of the major GOP candidates, lashed out at Rubio, accusing him of being “coached” to attack Donald Trump by “establishment types.”
From Sherman's report:
In his role as the donor class's darling, Marco Rubio has enjoyed support from the Republican's media arm, Fox News. Throughout the primary, Fox provided Rubio with friendly interviews and key bookings, including the first prime-time response to Barack Obama's Oval Office address on ISIS. Many of the network's top pundits, including Stephen Hayes and Charles Krauthammer, have been enthusiastic boosters. Bill Sammon, Fox's Washington managing editor, is the father of Rubio's communications director, Brooke Sammon.
But this alliance now seems to be over. According to three Fox sources, Fox chief Roger Ailes has told people he's lost confidence in Rubio's ability to win. “We're finished with Rubio,” Ailes recently told a Fox host. “We can't do the Rubio thing anymore.”