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There was often a disconnect between the Trump who sounded broken when he was off his teleprompter on the campaign trail, and the guy who appeared at town halls televised by Fox News. Some of it was due to Fox’s pre-taping and editing Trump’s appearances, but allegedly that wasn’t enough. Before a January 2024 town hall, somebody leaked the questions to Trump’s campaign.
“About thirty minutes before the town hall was due to start, a senior aide started getting text messages from a person on the inside at Fox. Holy s–t, the team thought. They were images of all the questions Trump would be asked and the planned follow-ups, down to the exact wording. Jackpot. This was like a student getting a peek at the test before the exam started,” Isenstadt writes.
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But “with the questions in hand” ahead of the telecast, the team “workshopped answers.”
The same book also alleges that Fox’s Maria Bartiromo has given Trump questions in advance for her interviews.
Trump made a big production out of claiming that Hillary Clinton’s campaign got debate questions in advance during the Democratic primary in 2016, but it turns out that it was Trump who was cheating in 2024.
The Trump team doesn’t want to hear any of this, and they claim that Trump won because he was so accessible, but it helps the candidate to have the questions in advance.
We will discuss below the ramifications of the allegations that Trump cheated and what it means for both Trump and Fox News.