The Fox News primetime blackout on Rob Porter continued this week, as its two biggest stars have been completely silent on the former Trump staff secretary who resigned last week amid allegations of physically abusing his ex-wives.
Despite one White House official claiming the Porter debacle is “as bad as” Trump’s infamous decision to fire FBI chief James Comey last year, neither Sean Hannity nor Tucker Carlson have mustered the strength to so much as mention the ousted Trump aide’s name on-air.
The Porter scandal has only grown as questions have arisen about the White House’s failure to explain why the ex-aide was able to stay on the job as long as he did, despite the brutal allegations. And on Tuesday, FBI chief Christopher Wray directly contradicted the White House’s timeline on how it handled those domestic-abuse claims.
The story has been covered extensively by Fox News’ daytime “hard news” programming, garnering hundreds of mentions over the past week.
But since Porter resigned last week, Carlson hasn’t spoken of the horrifying allegations against Porter, or those contradicting statements about when Team Trump knew of them. And yet, he has found the time to spar with an avowed communist, complain about airports showing CNN, and question the effectiveness of antidepressants.
The same goes for Sean Hannity, who has not uttered a word about the Porter misconduct, per a search of television-monitoring service TVEyes. Instead, he’s largely focused on conservative bugaboos like Hillary Clinton, alleged anti-Trump media bias, or the Republican-authored Nunes memo alleging surveillance abuses by the Obama administration.
Porter’s name, however, was briefly mentioned in passing by guests on both Carlson’s and Hannity’s show. During routine news cut-ins, Fox reporter Ed Henry briefly noted the FBI director’s contradiction of the White House’s timeline before pivoting to Hannity’s preferred story about Democratic Sen. Mark Warner‘s alleged ties to an anti-Trump dossier.
And on Carlson’s show, Democratic strategist Richard Goodstein mentioned Porter’s name in passing while noting the White House’s propensity to hire people who might be open to blackmail. And several days later, bombastic British TV star Piers Morgan likened Porter to Omarosa Manigault, the former Trump aide who was ousted last year, as an example of someone who should not have been in the White House.
Neither mention of the ex-aide was acknowledged by Carlson.
Fellow Fox News primetime star Laura Ingraham, however, has not shied away from the Porter ordeal. After initially ignoring the story, the conservative talk-radio star has mentioned the former aide at least ten times, and has even criticized Trump for remaining largely silent on the issue.
“I think the president could have mentioned the people who claim that Porter [abused] them—the ex-wives,” she said on Monday evening. “Sure, he could have mentioned it; maybe, probably should have.”
But, of course, then came the inevitable, whiplash-inducing pivot to blaming Democrats.
“But excuse me if I don't think that the Democrats really care all that much about women who are victims of abuse and harassment,” Ingraham continued. “Remember, folks, they campaigned with Bill Clinton. They partied with Harvey [Weinstein]. They ridiculed Paula Jones and Juanita Broaddrick. And they looked the other way when abuse was occurring for years because it helped them professionally, personally, politically—or all three.”
Fox News did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
