January 6th Committee: Former Fox News Political Editor To Testify, Trump Campaign Manager Pulls Out Due To Family Emergency
deadline.comThe January 6th Committee’s second public hearing this year had a last minute change in plan: Bill Stepien, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, bowed out early on Monday due to a family emergency.That quickly led to speculation among the press corps outside the Cannon Caucus Room on what happened, but Politico and other news outlets reported that his wife had gone into labor.
Instead, Stepien’s attorney will read a statement.Another marquee name on the agenda is Chris Stirewalt, the former Fox News political editor who was let go after the January 6th attack.
Although he has not said what he will testify about, the committee is focused on the origins of Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election, including how conspiracy theories spread in traditional and social media.The broadcast networks are carrying the proceedings live, as they did on Thursday, as are the major cable news networks.
That includes Fox News, a change from last week then it chose to skip the hearing last week in favor of its primetime opinion hosts, Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, who continued to blast the event as a partisan exercise.Last week’s hearing drew about 20 million viewers, according to Nielsen, a healthy number for summer viewing although not at the blockbuster level.
Read more on deadline.com
