Fox News’ chief political correspondent Bret Baier disclosed to Women’s Wear Daily that former President Donald Trump privately told him a June interview between the two men was “fair” before going on to publicly lambast Baier’s treatment of him as “nasty” after the former president’ performance during their conversation was panned via Media Ite.
“Immediately after the tape stopped, he said that he thought he was strong in the interview. And he said it was tough but fair,” recalled Baier. “I made sure to get some of that on camera. He has since [said] it was nasty or not nice.”
During a subsequent interview with Newsmax’s Eric Bolling, Trump reiterated that he believed he had done “a good job” but reversed his opinion of Baier’s interviewing style.
“When I did the interview with Bret, I thought it was fine. I thought it was okay, but there was nothing friendly about it. You know, it was nasty,” said Trump. “It was really like, unfriendly. Everything was like unfriendly. No smiling, no let’s have fun, let’s Make America Great Again. Everything was like a hit. So you have a hostile network.”
Trump has kept his supporters and detractors alike in the dark about whether or not he will attend the first Republican primary debate of the 2024 presidential cycle, which will be moderated by Baier and Martha MacCallum. Baier, however, believes that the GOP frontrunner will ultimately participate.
“It’s hard for me to believe that the former president is going to walk away from that state,” the anchor told WWD. “You never know with the former president. But I do think that he sees himself as excelling at debates, and he credits debates for how he got the nomination and how he went on to win. I think that the spotlight will be pretty big.”
Trump has frequently complained about Fox’s coverage of his third consecutive campaign for the White House.
“Fox is gone, just like in 2016, and the only way they come back is if they go ‘ALL TRUMP ALL THE TIME,’” argued Trump in one July Truth Social post.
