Roger Ailes has been advising Donald Trump since before he launched his presidential campaign. But now that Ailes has been booted from Fox News, he has apparently taken a leading role in Trump’s messaging.
I’ve previously reported that Ailes has been advising Trump, even before getting ousted from Fox News in the wake of sexual harassment allegations by Gretchen Carlson and other women.
But CNN’s Dylan Byers and Dana Bash got wind of just how important a role Ailes is now playing in the Trump campaign. They report:
In recent weeks, Ailes has become one of the most influential voices in the room as Trump prepares for his first head-to-head matchup with Hillary Clinton, on September 26. Ailes has attended at least two of Trump’s Sunday debate prep sessions in person, sources said, and talks with Trump by phone multiple times a week.
In these meetings and conversations, Ailes’ main objective is to sharpen Trump’s message. He is trying to help the candidate get his message out in a smart, cogent way while also maintaining his air of authenticity, one source familiar with the conversations said. He is also trying to help Trump come up with memorable one-liners that will stay in voters’ minds, drive headlines, and perhaps even turn the tide in Trump’s favor.
The Trump campaign continues to deny that Ailes is involved with the campaign. But CNN notes that the denial “has relied on fine distinctions, including the fact that Ailes has given advice directly to Trump, not to the campaign.”
When asked about Ailes’ involvement on Meet The Press on Sunday, Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, had no problem with Ailes’ involvement.
Caricatures of Trump and Ailes by DonkeyHotey via Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license (CC BY-SA 2.0).
“I’ve never seen Mr. Ailes there [Trump Tower]. I saw him for lunch one time recently…. I don’t know [if Roger gives Trump advice], because Mr. Trump speaks to many people on the phone when I’m not there.”
This is the same interview where Kellyane was certain Trump didn’t discuss Trump University with Bondi while admitting they talked before The Donald wrote the check. But the pair “may have talked about anything.”
Meanwhile Kellyanne and Trump have kittens over Bill Clinton talking to Loretta Lynch on her plane. 👍
It’s more than fishy. Dark forces with deep pockets are bribing (and/or extorting) Trump’s way to the White House.
That said, I really like CNN’s shows on slavery and the struggle against same. There’s real journalism in the organisation but it evaporates whenever the theme is the USA.
I suspect the same could be said of Fox. Over here, we don’t get the usual advertising eight times an hour, but rather a series of snippets called “Fox Extra”. Some of these were very good, particularly those that provided delightful insights into American culture. My favorites were a 1) health farm for pet pigs (porkers) somewhere in Pennsylvania (aroma therapy, dieticians, personal trainers, live mind-soothing personal serenades, etc.), 2) a beauty salon for under 8-year olds in Texas (poor kids) and 3) an elderly black man giving a demonstration of flat-dancing (wonderful).
Nowadays, the segments are almost as boring as the static weather maps.
Let’s see, Trump desperately needs women voters and yet he is paying a known sexual harasser and gross, creepy, dirty old man who has no respect for women (or his wife) to be part of his team. Nah, that doesn’t sit well with me at all and I can’t imagine that I’m the only one.
