Team Orange was gifted the questions to be asked by Fox News hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum shortly before a televised town hall in Iowa last January — exactly what Trump has accused Democratic candidates of in the past.
The news of Trump’s cheating comes from a national reporter from Politico, Alex Isenstadt, whose book Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power documents the revelation from over 300 interviews, internal memos, and recordings from the Trump campaign.
“About 30 minutes before the town hall was due to start, a senior aide started getting text messages from a person on the inside at Fox. Holy shit! the team thought. They were images of all the questions Trump would be asked and the planned follow-ups, down to the exact wording. Jackpot! This was like a student getting a peek at the test before the exam started.”
As expected, Trump was taking the Town Hall unseriously, and thought of Bret Baier as a “golfing buddy.”
Team Orange jumped quickly to provide suggested answers to the provided questions, which included whether he would divest from his businesses; whether the Republican Party was taking a risk nominating him due to his indictments; and Trump’s boastful plans for revenge and retribution for his political enemies.
Apparently, according to the author, “Trump was pissed.”
“My retribution will be my success, that is how I will get my revenge – by doing a good job for the American people,” was the answer the aides thought up — something far too clever for stable genius Trump to come up with on his own.
Bret Baier confessed to Larry Kudlow later that Trump was “on his game” during the bigly town hall.
Also in the book: Maria Bartiroma was Trump’s VP pick over JD Vance.
Fox host Maria Bartiroma was a Trump favorite for defending him relentlessly, and for giving him softball questions in multiple interviews — as well as gifting him questions in advance of interviews.
Bartiromo had sent text messages to Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows, outlining what she planned to ask in her interview with Trump in November 2020. The texts were revealed as part of Congress’ investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. — CNN
She was great with the big-donor Wall Street types and she knew how to do TV, Trump told his team.
Trump was trying to convince his team on Bartiroma during the flight to the infamous Butler, Pennsylvania, rally when Susie Wiles stepped in to say there was no time to vet the television host.
A Fox News spokesperson denies the allegations, saying “While we do not have any evidence of this occurring, and Alex Isenstadt has conveniently refused to release the images for fact checking, we take these matters very seriously and plan to investigate should there prove to be a breach within the network.”
