One thing is clear: Fox is sending a message to married Trump: Stop palling around with wacko extremist Laura Loomer in public.

Fox News' Jacqui Heinrich had a revealing discussion with Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt about Donald Trump’s latest gal pal, Laura Loomer. It was revealing not just because Leavitt would not or could not answer “how close” Trump and Loomer are but just as much because Heinrich kept grilling Leavitt about their relationship.

Heinrich began by reassuring Leavitt and Fox’s p***y grabber fans that Fox is on their side. Heinrich didn’t mention the inconvenient truth that Trump badly lost the debate on Tuesday. But she did suggest he should debate again because Kamala Harris has been “sort of ribbing him” on the campaign trail “for what he left unsaid in the debate, including on the details of his health care plan.” That’s a euphemistic summary of Harris’ remarks and the fact that Trump made it clear at the debate he has no health care plan despite wishing to replace Obamacare for years.

Then Heinrich said, “Wouldn't it benefit Trump to redeem himself and he could agree to a Fox debate and box her in?” Later, she touted the ridiculously insignificant data point that Trump’s closing argument got 17.6 million views on ABC News’ TikTok, now up to 24.6 million whereas Harris’ got 4.7 million. There was even a full-screen graphic to blare the "news."

But Heinrich moved on to not-so-subtly let Leavitt know the network thinks Loomer is a big liability for Trump: “We still have not heard him articulate the specifics on the healthcare plan” and “instead, our social media feeds have been inundated with remixes of his comments about, you know, this fringe claim that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Ohio. That was evidently brought to his attention by this figure, Laura Loomer, who has promoted this theory.”

Heinrich’s very pointed question followed: “How close is Trump to Laura Loomer, and why is he bringing her around with him?”

Leavitt dodged the question, which was revealing in itself. Instead, she described Loomer as “a supporter” and part of Donald Trump’s “big tent.” Then Leavitt quickly pivoted to attacking Harris.

LEAVITT: Well, as President Trump said yesterday, this individual does not work for the campaign. She's simply a supporter of the president, and he doesn't agree with everything she said. He doesn't agree with everything that all of his supporters said. He is building a big tent movement being supported by people like Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr, and while they don't all agree on everything, they agree on the most important thing, and that is ensuring Kamala Harris cannot be elected as President of the United States, considering she is a radical liberal, and I'm glad you brought up health care, Jackie, because I'd love your audience to know where Kamala Harris stands on that issue. She supports a socialist takeover of our health care system, supporting Bernie Sanders socialist Medicare for all, which would cost taxpayers $32 trillion Kamala Harris also wants to give amnesty to the nearly 20 million illegal people that she's allowed into this country, which will absolutely devastate and crumble our health care system. And she wants to make the taxpayers fund transgender surgeries for illegal immigrants. Those are radical positions. She does not deserve to be elected president. The American people will make that clear.

You know that Heinrich/Fox News was more interested in sending a friendly, albeit critical, message to Trump because she never questioned the idea of a far-right conspiracy theorist and bigot like Loomer being part of a “big tent.” She seemed far more interested in getting Trump to completely separate himself from Loomer.

HEINRICH: We did hear the former president try to distance himself from Laura Loomer, but he didn't denounce any specific statements that she has made. She once called 9/11 an inside job. He brought her to a 9/11 remembrance ceremony, he said, she said that if Harris wins the election, the White House will smell like curry. That's a racist joke about Harris's Indian heritage. J.D. Vance's wife is Indian. Does he denounce those statements?

In short, no. Leavitt claimed Trump “denounced those statements yesterday when he said he does not agree with all of the comments that this individual has made.” (Heinrich did not point out that that is far from a denouncement.) After claiming that Trump went to the 9/11 ceremony “to honor” the lives lost and their family members (despite being accompanied by the 9/11 denier), Leavitt turned to attacking the media for asking questions about Loomer. She followed up with a laughable false equivalence to Harris:

LEAVITT: I think it's pitiful that the media is constantly asking questions like this of President Trump, but not asking Kamala Harris if she agrees with all the statements made by her supporters, like maybe Vladimir Putin, who recently endorsed Kamala Harris for President. Does she agree with him? Does Kamala Harris agree with her own running mate, Tim Walz, putting tampons and men in women's bathrooms in public schools? She needs to be asked those questions as well if President Trump is going to be held to this ridiculous standard.

First of all, Putin was quite obviously trolling when he “endorsed” Harris. More importantly, she is not flying around with him on a private plane and appearing with him at campaign stops or anywhere else for that matter.

But Heinrich was not to be deterred in her message to Leavitt that Trump should keep his “friendship” with Loomer private.

HEINRICH: Well, if it's a ridiculous standard, I mean, there are members of the Republican Party who have voiced a lot of concern about her presence on the President's campaign, from Republican senators Lindsey Graham, Thom Tillis, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Should we expect then, given what you just told me, that we won't be seeing any more of Laura Loomer on the campaign trail with President Trump?

Nope, Leavitt can’t promise that. Instead she tried to paint bigoted, extremist Loomer as part of Trump’s “most diverse political movement that this country has ever seen.”

Leavitt continued blathering about how wonderful it is that Republicans “can disagree with one another” but still “understand the bigger picture” that “we cannot afford to have Kamala Harris be president of the United States.”

“Is that a no?” Heinrich asked.

Yes, it was. “I will leave it to President Trump,” Leavitt replied, “but as I have said to you, she is not a part of this campaign. She is not an official staffer. She is a supporter.”

Sorry, Ms. Leavitt, it couldn’t be more obvious that Loomer is more than a supporter. It also couldn’t be more obvious that Trump doesn’t care about the optics, he wants gal pal Loomer with him, period.

Coincidentally, Fox’s relative, The Wall Street Journal also signaled to Trump he should stop palling around with her in public.

Believe me, a Fox anchor does not grill a Trump campaign spokeswoman like this without the direction of someone higher up.

You can watch it below, from the September 14, 2024 Fox News Live.

(NOTE: The wrong video was originally embedded below.)