Leaving the White House
White House director of communications Alyssa Farah speaks with reporters at the White House last month. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
White House communications director Alyssa Farah resigned Thursday after three-and-a-half years in the Trump administration. She started off as Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary then joined the Department of Defense as a press secretary. She became the White House communications director in April.
The Washington Post’s Ashley Parker wrote, “Farah’s departure, with little over a month remaining in President Trump’s administration, amounts to a tacit acknowledgment that — despite his baseless and dangerous claims to the contrary — Trump lost the 2020 election, and much of his team is now pondering their post-White House future.”
In other words, the White House is scrambling to find new jobs. Parker reported that Farah’s last day is today and Farah “plans to start a consulting firm focusing on the corporate, political and defense realms.”
Le Batard leaving ESPN
In the not-surprising-but-still-disappointing-news department, ESPN and Dan Le Batard announced Thursday that Le Batard will be leaving the network. His final ESPN radio show and his last episode of his “Highly Questionable” TV show will both be Jan. 4 of next year. In a statement, ESPN said Le Batard is leaving to “pursue a new opportunity.”
ESPN executive vice president and executive editor Norby Williamson said, “It was mutually agreed that it was best for both sides to move on to new opportunities and we worked together closely to make that possible. We thank Dan for his many years and contributions to ESPN and wish him all the best going forward.”
In the same statement, Le Batard thanked many and finished by saying, “In short, thank you, Disney and ESPN, for a quarter century of absurd blessings. To our loyal army of concerned fans, and to everyone who walked along and played an instrument in our Marching Band to Nowhere, know that it is a very exciting time for us, not a sad one. And that you'll be hearing our laughter again soon enough.”
Le Batard leaving ESPN is not exactly a shocker. He and ESPN have had an uncomfortable and awkward relationship for years, often because Le Batard speaks his mind, including criticisms of ESPN. However, both the network and Le Batard seemed to respect one another enough for the relationship to survive as long as it has. The last straws might have come recently when ESPN cut Le Batard’s national radio show from three hours to two and then laid off one of Le Batard’s radio producers without consulting Le Batard. About the layoff, Le Batard called it “the greatest disrespect of my professional career.” Le Batard eventually hired the producer back and paid the producer’s salary out of his own pocket. But even without those incidents, the Le Batard-ESPN relationship seemed headed for a divorce eventually.
No word yet on what’s next for Le Batard, but he’ll be fine. He is extremely talented and has a lot of fans who are sure to follow him wherever he goes. ESPN will move along, too, although it is letting an immense and unique talent get away and its daytime TV and radio lineup will be weaker without Le Batard.
Mike Greenberg, who already hosts the morning TV show “Get Up,” will see his radio show “Greeny” move to Le Batard’s 10 a.m. to noon Eastern time slot.
Kelly’s thoughts on Fox News
Megyn Kelly. (DVT/STAR MAX/IPx)
During an interview on SiriusXM with Dan Abrams, former longtime Fox News on-air personality Megyn Kelly said it is “smart as a business decision” for Newsmax and OAN to cater their programming to Trump diehard supporters.
As far as Fox News, Kelly addressed how she thinks the late Roger Ailes, the one-time Fox News chairman and CEO, would have handled the 2020 election. She first said Fox News’ current coverage — with some on-air personalities vigorously clinging to baseless allegations that the election is not over and others reporting the fact that it is — has left viewers confused.
Kelly said, “If Roger were there, he’d be saying, ‘At least get one pundit on in all of these shows to at least make the president’s case.’ And I think they missed an opportunity by not doing that.”
Abrams asked Kelly that if Ailes were still at Fox News, would the network call Joe Biden the president-elect?
“I think they wouldn’t,” Kelly said, adding, “Roger was much more conspiratorial than people really knew. I mean, if you could have heard what he said behind closed doors about any given conspiracy of the day, like ‘Is Obama a Muslim?’ you would have been pretty surprised.”
Actually, I don’t know that anyone would have been that surprised, given what was on Fox News back in the day and what we now know about Ailes. And, honestly, Kelly’s comments reveal a troubling mindset that remains with some at Fox News.
Rush to judgment
Dr. Anthony Fauci. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
During an interview with CBS News’ Major Garrett on the podcast “The Takeout,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said the United Kingdom rushed the approval of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.
Fauci said, “You know, in all fairness to so many of my U.K. friends … they kind of ran around the corner of the marathon and joined it in the last mile. I think that would be a good metaphor for it because they really rushed through that approval. The FDA, the United States of America Food and Drug Administration, is the gold standard of regulation. They’re doing it in a very careful way, appropriately, because if we did anything that was cutting corners and rushing, we have enough problem with people being skeptical about taking a vaccine anyway. If we had jumped over the hurdle here quickly and inappropriately to gain an extra week or a week and a half, I think that the credibility of our regulatory process would have been damaged.”
Fauci said the U.K. has “good scientists,” but added, “they just took the data from the Pfizer company and instead of scrutinizing it really, really carefully, they said, ‘OK, let’s approve it. That’s it.’ And they went with it. In fact, they were even rather severely criticized by their European Union counterparts who were saying, you know, ‘That was kind of a hot dog play.’”
I bring this up for three reasons. One, it’s really interesting. Two, you should check out Garrett’s podcast, because it’s good. And, three, don’t you love how accessible Fauci is and how honest he is whenever he is interviewed?
Speaking of Fauci …
HuffPost’s Jeffrey Young has a new piece out: “A Day in the Life of Dr. Anthony Fauci.” It literally goes through Fauci’s entire day, starting with when he gets up at 5:10 a.m. He said every day is different, and it’s like “drinking out of a firehose trying to keep ahead of everything that’s going on.”
And, sadly, that life has serious drawbacks. Fauci told Young, “I have federal agents that protect me. So they drive me to work, they stay here, they make sure that nobody tries to break in (to my home) and, as Steve Bannon would like, have somebody behead me. I don’t socialize. It’s my wife and I and the federal agents. We’ve sort of become like a new family unit.”
Fauci’s days won’t slow down anytime soon. Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he has asked Fauci to stick around as “chief medical adviser.”
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