Fox News host Bret Baier clapped back at former Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd on Thursday after he appeared to question Baier’s journalistic integrity.
Todd, who stepped down as NBC News’ chief political analyst last month after nearly two decades with the network, appeared to take aim at Baier during an interview last week on The Bulwark podcast with Sam Stein.
Without naming Baier directly, Todd said a Fox News employee who he once “thought he really cared about being a journalist first and wanting to walk that line” now “just wants a tee time with the president.”
Speaking at a Semafor summit in Washington, D.C., focused on restoring public trust in the media, Baier appeared to accept that Todd’s comments were about him. He dismissed the remarks as “interesting” and took a swipe of his own.
“Yeah, that’s interesting. I don’t know what prompted Chuck to do that. I have an interview to do with the U.K. prime minister today. So I don’t know what he’s doing,” Baier said.
Baier’s response drew laughs from the audience. He went on to defend his acumen as a journalist and his relationship with President Donald Trump, suggesting that anyone in the profession would seek to gain insight into the leader’s thinking and decision-making process.
“I think my focus is what I said—covering the news. If I have off-the-record conversations and moments with President Trump, I think that any journalist would want to get in his mind of what’s next. Things are going a million miles an hour. So just to have a perspective off the record, I don‘t think that’s true,” said Baier.
The Fox News host then lauded his team’s track record and his network’s ability to be one step ahead in breaking major stories.
“As I’ve said, we’ve covered a lot of things first. When we raised questions about Biden’s cognitive state, we were accused of spreading cheap fake videos and pushing an attack narrative—until suddenly, those concerns became widely acknowledged. The same happened with COVID and the Wuhan lab. We were criticized, yet a year later, it turned out we were ahead of the curve,” Baier said.
He said that, over time, the public has come to trust Fox News for its coverage. “We cover big events, and we’re the most-watched. I think that trust is important,” he added.
Todd announced on Jan. 31 that he would leave his role as NBC’s chief political analyst to “pursue ventures outside” the network. He said he intends to continue providing political analysis through his podcast, The Chuck Toddcast, which he plans to shift to a new platform.
