Fox held separate pre-Iowa town halls for DeSantis and Haley, but at 6 p.m. before prime time.The DeSantis team felt Trump received little pushback from Fox when he decided to skip debates. They were angry that surrogates for the former president showed up at post-debate “spin rooms” even with the candidate absent, said a person close to the campaign who spoke candidly on condition of anonymity.Frustration boiled over when DeSantis’ campaign manager, James Uthmeier, felt that a Fox graphic didn’t show the extent of the candidate’s appearances in Iowa. “Fox has turned into full-blown Trump TV,” Uthmeier wrote on X, formerly Twitter.Fox did not make an executive available for an interview for this story. But a representative said that Trump surrogates were on scene post-debate because they had been booked for appearances by other networks. The 6 p.m. town halls weren’t as much a disadvantage as it seemed, since they followed “The Five,” Fox’s most-watched show.On Jan. 16, the day after the Iowa caucus, Fox’s Laura Ingraham urged both DeSantis and Haley to clear the field for Trump.”If she drops out today, if she came to terms with the fact that the GOP is a populist party, if she started vigorously campaigning for Trump, she could perhaps rebuild some of the trust that she’s lost with the GOP base,” Ingraham said.During her testy “Fox & Friends” appearance on the morning of the New Hampshire primary, Haley rebuffed host Brian Kilmeade when he asked what would constitute a strong showing for her that day. Asked by Ainsley Earhardt if she would withdraw if she lost New Hampshire, Haley said she would not. Kilmeade later repeated the same question.”I don’t care how much y’all want to coronate Donald Trump,” Haley said. “At the end of the day, that’s not what America wants. America wants a choice.”Kilmeade told her, “I really wonder why you think we’re the enemy.”One possibility: she had watched Trump give Kilmeade a tour of his plane earlier in New Hampshire. “You look like you’re in fightin’ shape,” Kilmeade said as he greeted the former president. “How much weight did you lose?””I get their annoyance,” Erickson said. “They’ve got a right to be annoyed by it, (with Fox) essentially pushing them to bow to a reality that they were not prepared to acknowledge.”A Fox spokeswoman noted that, in response to Kilmeade’s “enemy” comment, Haley said “because I’ve looked at the media,” implying a broader criticism. She and DeSantis aren’t staying away, though; both accepted invitations to appear on Fox after making their criticisms.During an interview with New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Haley surrogate, Fox’s Harris Faulkner pushed back when Sununu questioned whether Trump’s age had affected his cognitive abilities—a frequent Fox topic when President Joe Biden is the subject.”The guy is nearly 80 years old,” Sununu said.”He’s 77,” Faulkner replied.”Yes, that’s nearly 80,” Sununu said. “We’ll do the math later.”Faulkner admonished Sununu for calling Trump a coward for not debating.”No name calling,” she said. “We don’t do name calling.”
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