Ainsley Earhardt

Earhardt moved to New York City and began working at Fox News Channel in 2007.[5] Earhardt has stated that she "did not know the first thing about politics" before she was hired by Roger Ailes to work at the network.[4] She has appeared on Hannity with her own segment called "Ainsley Across America". Since joining the network, she has also co-hosted Fox and Friends Weekend, Fox's All-American New Year's Eve, America's News Headquarters, been a panelist on The Live Desk and appeared on Greg Gutfeld's Red Eye. She became a co-host of Fox & Friends in 2016.[8]

Earhardt has stated that she is a fair journalist who wants "to ask tough questions" and "does not want to come across as being in the tank for" the Trump administration. During her tenure on the show Fox & Friends, Trump tweeted about the show more than 100 times in the first eight months of his presidency.[4] Earhardt has interviewed both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.[9] During a 2018 interview, she praised Trump for threatening former FBI Director James Comey with alleged audio recordings, stating it "was a smart way to make sure he stayed honest" in congressional hearings.[10][4][11][12][13] Shortly prior to the interview, Trump had withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement; Earhardt asked him about this, "Why did President Obama — why did his administration think this agreement was okay for America?" In a later interview with Mike Pence, she described the Paris Climate Agreement as "unfair" to the United States.[4]

Earhardt defended Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey, saying "he gets to decide who works for him. Someone who works for him who is not supportive of him, he gets rid of them."[14] Amid the Trump administration's negotiations with Kim Jong-Un, Fox & Friends ran North Korean images of Kim Jong-Un touring industry in his country; Earhardt described the images as "very romantic".[15] In 2017, she falsely claimed that "5.7 million... illegal immigrants might have voted" in the 2008 election.[16]

In August 2018, Earhardt stated incorrectly on Fox & Friends that the U.S. defeat of "communist Japan" was an event that had made "America great".[17][18] When the U.S. defeated Japan in World War II, Japan was actually an imperial fascist regime and an Axis nation.[19][20] Another host tried to mask her blunder, but it soon went viral.[17][18]

In May 2019, after The New York Times documented Trump's "deep financial distress" between 1985 and 1994, which included losing more money than almost any other American taxpayer, Earhardt praised Trump, saying "it's pretty impressive, all the things that he's done in his life. It's beyond what most of us could ever achieve."[21][22] Earhardt criticized "the liberal media", saying that Republicans will not run for office anymore "because they know the liberal media is going to take them down."[23] In October 2018, after The New York Times documented how Trump obtained nearly half a billion dollars from his father through "dubious tax schemes" and possible tax fraud, Earhardt accused the Times of "bashing" Trump's father.[24]

According to Business Insider, "few subjects animate [Earhardt] more than stories about alleged attacks on Christianity."[4] When a Missouri sheriff's department was criticized for putting "In God We Trust" decals on their squad cars, Earhardt defended the sheriff's department, asking "What about the majority? I'm so tired of protecting the rights of the minority. What about the rest of the country?"[4]

After Trump ordered the assassination of a top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps general, Qasem Soleimani, and cited what it said was intelligence that necessitated the assassination, Earhardt defended the administration's against requests that the administration show the intelligence. She said, "I find it interesting that people are critical of the president's decisions, of our intelligence community's decisions, or general's decisions... Everything can't be made public." She paraphrased Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, "you just have to trust us." Previously, Earhardt had shown considerable distrust of the intelligence community during Trump's presidency; she had also advanced "deep state" conspiracy theories.[25][26][27]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Earhardt encouraged readers to go flying, saying "it's actually the safest time to fly."[28][29] Her comments contradicted guidance from the Center for Disease Control.[28] She criticized Democrats and "the media", saying that they were making the coronavirus pandemic "political."[30]