Fox News Radio star Brian Kilmeade is facing backlash from conservatives after he attacked longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon as well as others who are concerned that Fox has lost its way.
Since Kilmeade took over Tucker Carlson’s old time-slot, the network’s ratings have taken a nose dive. More than half of the audience during Tucker’s old show has turned off their televisions while Kilmeade hosted the program.
“It’s a bloodbath,” said ex-Fox News host Megyn Kelly.
Bannon called for a boycott of Fox News and called Kilmeade a “yapping puppy.”
In response, Kilmeade told a WABC radio host, “I don’t think we have to curtail our format to make Steve Bannon happy.”
Jim Holt, of The Gateway Pundit, took a shot at Kilmeade.
“Maybe Kilmeade should worry more about his ratings rather than hurling daggers at Steve Bannon,” Holt wrote. “What a joke.”
Rudy Giuliani blasted Kilmeade during a Newsmax interview with ex-Fox host Eric Bolling.
“Brian Kilmeade, who’s tapped to sit in for Tucker this week, took a shot at Steve Bannon,” Bolling said. “Are they making it obvious that these–this Fox News group is just completely against the America First and MAGA crowd?”
The former NYC mayor said the Fox Radio star was behaving more like a Democrat.
“Brian is better than that,” Giuliani said. “I don’t know who put him up to do that, but that’s like a cheap political attack, not the analysis of a journalist. Brian likes to think of himself as a journalist and he should try to act like one.”
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FRANK MORANO (HOST): A lot of folks are wondering what this portends for the future of Fox News Channel. You have a lot of folks, folks like Steve Bannon and others, basically declaring war on Fox and saying if you watch Fox, you’re part of the enemy. Where do you think this whole episode leaves Fox News and its viewership going forward?
BRIAN KILMEADE (FOX NEWS HOST): Just as strong as ever. I mean, put it this way. I mean, did Sean Hannity change? Did Laura Ingraham change? Did Bret Baier change? Did The Five, the No. 1 show in all of television, change? Did Neil Cavuto change? I mean, what are you talking about? Tucker’s very different. He’s the original thought leader. I’m with his team now. They’re unbelievable in terms of producers. You’ve got a great producing team here. Anyone, Frank, if you’re ever out, someone’s going to walk in and there’s going to be a machine to help them out if you’re ever out. So every producing team of literally their own franchise. You know, for Steve Bannon to come out and criticize Fox, really? This guy got, I guess, fired from the Trump administration and then I hooked up with another writer and just ripped Trump from limb to limb? Then he gets himself in legal trouble and Trump pardons him, and now he’s a Trump loyalist. So, to me, I don’t know what they’re talking about. These are a bunch of people who think they can run this network and they can’t. And one thing I will tell you, nobody’s telling — all those names I just ran through, nobody tells Tucker what to do. No one tells us what to do. No one — Fox & Friends, three hours in the morning, three hour radio show, you know, something goes wrong, we have media relations call and say, “What happened?” That’s about it. So it’s the No. 1 show for 25 years. And I don’t think we have to curtail our format to make Steve Bannon happy.
WABC