In his forthcoming book, “On The House,” former House Speaker John Boehner describes trying to get Roger Ailes, then the powerful boss at Fox News, to “put a leash on some of the crazies he was putting on the air,” according to Forbes.
In an excerpt of the book published in Politico, Boehner says Ailes spoke of being “monitored” by the Obama White House, and told Boehner he’d built a “safe room” in an effort to avoid being spied on.
“It was clear that he believed all of this crazy stuff. I walked out of that meeting in a daze. I just didn’t believe the entire federal government was so terrified of Roger Ailes that they’d break about a dozen laws to bring him down. I thought I could get him to control the crazies, and instead I found myself talking to the president of the club. One of us was crazy. Maybe it was me.
Boehner describes Fox News as a factory “making people who used to be fringe characters into powerful media stars.” Of Fox News prime time star Sean Hannity, Boehner writes he was “one of the worst.”
Hannity, on Twitter, responded to Boehner:
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— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) April 2, 2021
John Boehner will go down in history as one of the worst Republican speakers in history. He’s weak, timid and what’s up with all the crying John?
There was not a single time I was around him when he didn’t just reek of cigarette smoke and wine breath.
Boehner, who says he’d known Ailes for years—going back to Ailes’ work with the first Bush Administration—described a meeting in 1996 that included Rupert Murdoch. “At that dinner they told me all about this new TV network they were starting. I had no idea I was listening to the outline of something that would make my life a living hell down the line. Sure enough, that October, Fox News hit the airwaves.”
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