Former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, now a member of the board at the Fox Corporation, is reportedly ready to wield his new-found “Deep State” power to “do something” about President Donald Trump.
“Paul is embarrassed about Trump and now he has the power to do something about it.”
According to a report in Vanity Fair and picked up by Business Insider, Ryan is one of the most important new voices pushing Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch to pivot away from the network’s ultra-pro-Trump stance because Ryan is embarrassed by him and his behavior.
“Paul is embarrassed about Trump and now he has the power to do something about it,” an executive who’s spoken with Ryan told Vanity Fair.
There is apparently a lot of consternation at the network with how to handle the impeachment news centered around Trump allegedly pressuring the president of Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, who Trump could face in the 2020 election.
Current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced an impeachment inquiry on Tuesday.
Per Vanity Fair:
“I don’t see how they don’t impeach,” a former West Wing official said.
“This could unwind very fast, and I mean in days,” a prominent Republican said.
Trump has surprisingly lashed out at the network in recent weeks for its polling, which showed him underwater against Democratic candidates, and for giving airtime to Democrats.
…..Comcast (NBC/MSNBC) Trump haters, who do whatever Brian & Steve tell them to do. Like CNN, NBC is also way down in the ratings. But @FoxNews, who failed in getting the very BORING Dem debates, is now loading up with Democrats & even using Fake unsourced @nytimes as….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 7, 2019
The coverage of the impeachment inquiry on Fox News has been up and down. Shep Smith has been critical of Trump, while Tucker Carlson has been supportive.
According to the Vanity Fair report, Sean Hannity, a major Trump ally at the network, told friends the whistleblower allegations are “really bad,” and Murdoch is already planning how to transition the network to a post-Trump administration future.
“It’s management bedlam,” a Fox staffer told Vanity Fair. “This massive thing happened, and no one knows how to cover it.”
But ultimately it’s up to Murdoch with how the network decides how to cover Trump, yet one of the most powerful voices in his ear is the former House Speaker Ryan, which is bad news for the president if the reports are true. Ryan, who served as the Republican House speaker for Trump’s first two years in office, declined to comment for the article.
Editor’s note: Is this the makings of a Deep State coup working to take down President Trump, or just a ‘fake news” report?
