Former President Trump took a shot at Bret Baier, Fox News’s chief political anchor, for what he described as a “hostile” line of questioning during an interview that aired on the network last week.
“Then you have a hostile network like Fox. 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,” Trump said during an appearance on a Newsmax show hosted by Eric Bolling, a former Fox News host. “And I thought I did a good job; I’ve been given credit for doing a good job.”
Trump said people close to him have asked why he agreed to the interview with Baier, which The Hill first reported was negotiated over a period of several weeks and was his first sit-down with Baier since 2018.
“Because 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,” Trump continued. “So you have a hostile network. And you have people that are their candidates they are obviously against you … and if you’re leading by 30, 40, 50 points, what’s the purpose of really doing it?”
During the wide-ranging conversation with Baier, which aired over two nights on Fox, the host pressed Trump about his handling of classified documents, his false claims of fraud in the 2020 election and his campaign for the GOP nomination for president in 2024.
Baier was widely praised in media and political circles last week for his handling of Trump’s first sit-down with a journalist from the network’s news division since he lost the 2020 election.
Trump had been asked during the Newsmax interview about his lack of commitment to participating in the first GOP primary debate in August, which will be hosted by Fox and moderated by Baier and fellow anchor Martha MacCallum.
Trump has repeatedly attacked Fox over its coverage of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), his chief GOP primary rival, earlier this month blasting his former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who is now a host at the network, for her comments on DeSantis’s polling in Iowa.