The comment, from mid-2021, refers to This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future by Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns, two New York Times reporters. The book is expected to be released in May. Last month, Politico quoted excerpts from Jill Biden, now the first lady, criticizing her husband’s decision to nominate Kamala Harris as his running mate. Citing Biden’s remarks about Murdoch, CNN said the president had never spoken publicly about the 91-year-old media baron and owner of Fox News. The president told the town hall audience that sometimes “he turns[s] to Fox to find out how popular I am. ” He also apologized to White House Fox News reporter Peter Doocy for calling him a “stupid bitch’s son.” According to Burns and Martin, Biden “rated” Murdoch as “one of the most destructive forces in the United States.” Fox News presenters, including Tucker Carlson, have made clear misinformation about the coronavirus and have spoken favorably of Vladimir Putin and Russia. The network has been sued for voting on Donald Trump’s lies about electoral fraud in his defeat by Biden, who is now the target of daily ridicule by Fox News presenters. The White House and Fox News did not immediately comment. Fox News widely supports Trump. But Murdoch clashed with the former president. In January 2018, author Michael Wolff reported that Murdoch, an Australian-born American citizen, called Trump a “fucking idiot” for his views on immigration. Last year, Wolff reported that Murdoch personally approved Fox News’s Arizona call for Biden, a decision that indicated Trump would lose his re-election campaign. Fox News denied it. Wolff told Brian Stelter, the CNN presenter who on Sunday revealed Biden’s comment about Murdoch, that Murdoch “hates Donald Trump. “She hates him – but Rupert loves money.” Stelter is the author of a 2020 book, Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth. According to the Guardian, the book states that Trump’s second attorney general, William Barr, told Murdoch that a Fox News personality who criticizes Trump should be “silenced.”
