In an authorized biography to be released this month, Fox News chief Roger Ailes spoke derisively of Newt Gingrich while admitting to harboring some affection for Vice President Joe Biden — even if he thinks President Obama’s second-in-command is a bit “dumb.”
Vanity Fair scored an exclusive adaptation of Zev Chafets’s forthcoming book, Roger Ailes: Off Camera, and published the excerpt online Tuesday.
As a Republican presidential candidate, Gingrich, a former Fox News contributor, blasted the conservative cable news network for giving preferential treatment to Mitt Romney — a complaint that made Ailes bristle:
One day during the 2012 primary season, Newt Gingrich complained that Fox News’s support for Mitt Romney was responsible for Gingrich’s poor showing. Rick Santorum had made a similar claim when he dropped out of the race. Gingrich and Santorum had been Fox commentators before getting into the race, and Ailes found their complaints self-serving and disloyal. Brian Lewis, his spokesman, asked Ailes for guidance on how to respond to Newt. “Brush him back,” Ailes said. “He’s a sore loser and if he had won he would have been a sore winner.” Lewis nodded.
Ailes was silent for a moment and then added, “Newt’s a prick.”
When the topic turned to Marco Rubio’s prospects as a vice presidential nominee last year, Ailes said he didn’t know if the Florida Republican had what it took. Ailes then said that he has a “soft spot” for the current vice president, although he finds him dim-witted:
“I like Marco Rubio,” Ailes told a staff meeting of Fox News Latino when talk about the Florida senator being Mitt Romney’s vice-presidential pick was at fever pitch. “But I don’t know about as a vice-presidential candidate. He’s a nice guy, and that role requires kicking the crap out of your opponents.” He paused, thinking about vice presidents he had known. “I have a soft spot for Joe Biden,” he said. “I like him. But he’s dumb as an ashtray.”
The book also includes details about a sit-down between Obama and Ailes during the 2008 campaign:
During the presidential campaign of 2008, candidate Barack Obama was upset by Fox News, which by then was in its sixth year of cable dominance. A sit-down was arranged with Murdoch and Ailes, who recalls that the meeting took place in a private room at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Manhattan. (White House spokesman Jay Carney declined to relate the president’s version.) Obama arrived with his aide Robert Gibbs, who seated Ailes directly across from Obama, close enough for Ailes to feel the intention was to intimidate him. He didn’t mind; in fact, he rather appreciated the stagecraft, one political professional to another.
After some pleasantries, Obama got to the point. He was concerned about the way he was being portrayed on Fox, and his real issue wasn’t the news; it was Sean Hannity, who had been battering him every night at nine (and on his radio show, which Fox doesn’t own or control). Ailes didn’t deny that Hannity was anti-Obama. He simply told the candidate not to worry about it. “Nobody who watches Sean’s going to vote for you anyway,” he said.
