This reporting is one of several scoops featured in this week’s edition of Confider, the newsletter pulling back the curtain on the media. Subscribe here and send your questions, tips, and complaints here.
Former Trump White House communications director Mercedes Schlapp has long been a familiar face in right-wing media. Rarely a day goes by when Schlapp, the wife of American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp, isn’t popping up on Fox News or the conservative cable giant’s wannabe competitor Newsmax.
But while it’s commonplace for pundits and political officials to appear on competing networks as long as they don’t have an exclusive contributor deal with one of them, Schlapp’s habit of bouncing back and forth between these two rivals has been raising eyebrows—especially because of her tight relationship with Newsmax.
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Since last year’s departure of Newsmax host and ex-Trump adviser Steve Cortes, Schlapp—a Conservative Political Action Committee senior fellow—has regularly filled in as a guest co-host on Prime News, the primetime program Cortes used to headline alongside former One America News anchor Jenn Pellegrino. In fact, Schlapp has sat in the anchor chair on Prime News at least 29 times since June, according to a transcript search via media monitoring service TVEyes.
During an interview with her former Trump administration colleague Peter Navarro in September, Navarro told Schlapp that he wanted “to thank Newsmax and [Newsmax CEO] Chris Ruddy, personally, for helping me raise the money I’m needing for my legal defense fund,” referencing his arrest earlier this year.
Additionally, amid Newsmax’s penchant for throwing bombs at Fox News in an effort to appeal to hardcore MAGA viewers who feel the channel has abandoned Donald Trump, Schlapp has found herself on anti-Fox segments.
During a Nov. 11 appearance on The Chris Salcedo Show, the eponymous host declared that the “Murdoch empire” was part of the “Democrat-controlled press” that was blaming Trump for killing the expected “red wave” for Republicans.
Schlapp didn’t push back when Salcedo asked if he was “wrong” with his assessment. “I think it’s kind of ridiculous to think that we’re going to put the blame game on Donald Trump or on some of these Republican leaders,” she replied.
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Four days later, she sat in as guest co-host of the Fox News panel show Outnumbered, a feat she would repeat in another two weeks.
One Newsmax insider told Confider that Schlapp had turned down a Newsmax contributor contract, adding that they do not believe Schlapp has any kind of short-term hosting contract, which is common for other fill-in anchors.
But besides making dozens of appearances on Fox News and sister channel Fox Business Network over the past two months, Schlapp—who was once a paid Fox News contributor before joining the Trump White House—has also recently appeared on Gutfeld!, the network’s “late-night comedy” show.
Schlapp’s apparent playing of both sides while Newsmax attempts to compete with its ratings-dominant rival is similar to the case of Mike Huckabee. The former Arkansas governor had been a Fox News contributor since 2008 (with a hiatus for his presidential run), all while becoming a fixture on Newsmax programming.
Besides airing Huckabee’s weekend Christian broadcasting show in syndication, Newsmax also featured the ex-governor in a promotional ad that took a swing at Fox News for correctly calling the 2020 election results. (Huckabee has personally criticized Fox for its early and accurate call of Arizona for Joe Biden.)
All the while, Huckabee continued to make appearances on both networks in a pundit capacity—and even filmed a Trump-themed Christmas special that was aired repeatedly on Newsmax.
Eventually, even though Fox News and Huckabee himself were still billing him as a “Fox News contributor,” it was revealed that Fox News had dropped Huckabee as a paid contributor in August 2021.
“She has a great relationship with all of the networks and does not currently have a contract with these networks,” a CPAC spokesperson told Confider. “Mercedes is working with CPAC. Her job is to spread the conservative message and provide political analysis, and she appears as a guest or guest host whenever she can.”
A representative for Newsmax declined to comment.
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