Sarah Huckabee Sanders Will be a Fox News Contributor After Stepping Down as Trump's Spokeswoman
Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who left her job with President Donald Trump this summer, will join Fox News as a contributor starting next month.
The network announced Thursday that it had hired Sanders, 37, who will “provide political commentary and analysis” on Fox News as well as Fox Business Network, the streaming service Fox Nation and Fox News’ digital and radio platforms.
“I am beyond proud to join their incredible stable of on-air contributors in providing political insights and analysis,” Sanders, the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, said in a statement.
Such transitions from politics to cable news are far from unusual. Former officials in President Barack Obama‘s administration such as David Axelrod and Jay Carney later took jobs on CNN, for example, as did former Trump campaign official Jason Miller was an MSNBC contributor.
But for Trump, in contrast to previous presidents, cable TV and Fox News play a special role in his daily routine. He often reacts in real-time on Twitter to what he learns on Fox News shows, and some on the network address him directly.
Former Fox News contributors have gone on to join Trump’s government — such as Heather Nauert, who became a State Department spokeswoman, and John Bolton, now the national security adviser — and the reverse: Hope Hicks, a longtime Trump aide who served as communications director in the White House, now heads communications for Fox News’ parent company.
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Like many of the Trump White House’s most visible officials, Sanders regularly faced criticism that she was a mouthpiece for the president’s long history of lies, misstatements and exaggerations. In what she described as a “slip of the tongue” earlier this year, Sanders did not tell the truth when she claimed in 2017 that “countless” FBI agents were happy about Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey. Her false statement came to light as part of Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
Her relationship with the press was also controversial at a time when President Trump routinely dismissed negative or investigative coverage of him as anti-American.
RELATED: President Trump Says He Told Sarah Huckabee Sanders ‘Not to Bother’ to Brief the Press Anymore
Though she was known as a helpful resource for individual reporters in private, Sanders essentially ended the White House’s daily briefing with news media, where government officials could explain their work to the public, and often tangled with the press on camera.
After Sanders announced earlier this year that she would leave the White House, Trump said, “She’s done an incredible job. We’ve been through a lot together. She’s tough but she’s good.”
