White House senior trade adviser Peter Navarro says former Fox News host Maria Bartiromo shared network executives’ editorial mandates with him—a move that reportedly led to her ouster.
Fox announced Thursday that it had parted ways with the Trumpy host after more than 12 years. The company didn’t specify a reason, but subsequent reporting by Status revealed that it stemmed from Bartiromo sharing guidance from her superiors about how to cover President Donald Trump’s baseless claims about the 2020 election in a July speech—namely, to stay away from it.
Now, Navarro has told Puck that Bartiromo sent him a screenshot of the edict. He then sent it “up the chain.”
According to the report, Bartiromo, 58, had planned to invite Navarro on her show as part of her coverage of Trump’s speech. When the editorial guidance from Ralph Giordano, senior vice president of programming at Fox Business Network, arrived, it ended up in Navarro’s hands, he told the publication, claiming that Fox was “censoring” the story.
After Navarro, 77, shared that information with others in the White House, one high-ranking Trump official—whom he declined to name—raised the issue with Fox News leadership.
Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and its president, Jay Wallace, were angry with Bartiromo, Puck reports. But it wasn’t until several weeks later—after her last Fox News broadcast on Aug. 9—that the company informed her that it would end her shows. According to the report, Bartiromo is still under contract and can be paid until 2028.
Bartiromo’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, has maintained that Bartiromo remains an employee of the network.
“The irresponsible reports that have been published stating that Maria Bartiromo was fired or is no longer an employee of Fox are absolutely and unequivocally false,” he said in a statement, first reported by the Daily Mail. “Make no mistake, we have the receipts and witnesses, and they will come out whether through the courthouse or otherwise.”
“Those reporting her firing or the incredulous facts supporting that fiction have exhibited a complete and utter reckless disregard for the truth,” he added.
When reached for comment earlier, a Fox News spokesperson told the Daily Beast that its original statement spoke for itself: “Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media.”
In the weeks preceding Bartiromo’s exit, Fox executives reportedly told her staff to isolate her.
“Even her own staff had to go through management,” a source at the network told Mediaite. “People were freaking out.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Fox, the White House, and Freedman for comment about Navarro’s involvement.
Both Bartiromo’s and Navarro’s pro-Trump histories are well-documented. While Bartiromo helped push baseless claims about the 2020 election, which were part of what led to Fox’s massive payout to Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation case, Navarro, meanwhile, helped orchestrate an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. He described that effort to the Daily Beast in December 2021.
Navarro also opted to go to jail rather than comply with a House Jan. 6 Committee subpoena.
