Bret Baier’s Planned Joint Interview With Speaker Contenders Unravels, Fox News Anchor Says Candidates Backed Out After Pressure From Other Members – Update

Ted Johnson
·4 min read
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UPDATE: Fox News’ Bret Baier said that the planned televised joint interview on Monday with speaker of the House contenders is off, after pushback from other lawmakers.

“They had all agreed, the pressure built, and that’s what happened,” Baier said on Fox News on Friday afternoon.

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He said that he is still planning to bring his Special Report to Capitol Hill on Monday with different guests.

Baier said that on Thursday, Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan had said that they would participate. The plans were for a third congressman, Kevin Hern, to participate as well, with the idea that he will have declared by that he was running for speaker by the time the event was announced on Special Report on Friday evening.

Then, news of Baier’s involvement in an event with the speaker candidates leaked out on Friday morning, with reports that the Fox anchor would be moderating a behind-closed-door debate for the Republican . caucus. Baier said that such reports were “bizarre.”

But after Fox News announced plans later in the morning that Baier would do a joint interview, “there became pressure from other members on these three to not do that before they talked to members.” Even though Fox News had billed the event as a joint interview, a number of members were calling it a “debate,” apparently concerned that a televised event would only further highlight fissures within the caucus.

“I think the word ‘debate’ has scared folks over the past couple of days,” Baier said. “And we’re hoping to change that. We’re going to use a different word going forward. In-depth interview.”

PREVIOUSLY: Fox News anchor Bret Baier’s planned joint interview with GOP candidates for House speaker appears to be off, as two of the contenders backed out.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), one of the planned participants, will not participate, his spokesperson confirmed to Deadline. Earlier, another possible contender, Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK) said he would not be part of what he characterized as a “televised debate.” The network said it would be a joint interview, not a debate.

Some GOP members balked at the prospect of a televised gathering of the candidates potentially fueling more contentiousness following the ouster of Kevin McCarthy.

PREVIOUSLY: One of the participants in Fox News anchor Bret Baier’s planned joint interview with Speaker of the House contenders has dropped out, while some Republicans have complained about plans for the event.

Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK), who hasn’t yet decided whether he will run, wrote on X/Twitter that he would “not be participating in the televised debate. We need to make this decision as a conference, not on TV. The Republican conference needs a family discussion.”

Meanwhile, another contender, Jim Jordan (R-OH), wants to meet with the GOP conference before the event, according to CNN. A spokesman for Jordan did not immediately return a request for comment.

The network says that the planned joint interview was not a debate. The plan was for the event to take place at the Capitol, without an audience, and to air on Special Report on Monday evening.

PREVIOUSLY: Bret Baier, chief political anchor for Fox News, will conduct a joint interview with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK) on Monday on Capitol Hill about the race for House speaker.

Jordan and Scalise have announced their bids to succeed Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted this week, while Hern has said he is mulling a run for the post.

The interview will air on Special Report on Monday, in advance of a vote on Tuesday, the network said.

There will be no audience, but the event likely will be closely watched by the Republican caucus as they try to elect a new leader.

Punchbowl News first reported on Baier’s interview. The network stressed that the speaker candidates will be participating in an interview, not a debate, but the plans drew some criticism from some in the GOP caucus. Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) told CNN that he thought it was a “horrible idea” to do the joint interview.

Donald Trump, who himself has been pitched as a candidate and has expressed a willingness to do so, endorsed Jordan for speaker in a Truth Social post early on Friday, writing that he has “my complete and total endorsement.”

Weighing in against Jordan was former Rep. Liz Cheney, who in a speech on Thursday cited his involvement in Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, resulting in the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. “There was a handful of people, of which he was the leader, who knew what Donald Trump had planned,” she said. “Someone needs to ask Jim Jordan, ‘Why didn’t you report to the Capitol Police what you knew Donald Trump had planned. You were in those meetings at the White House.”

She added, “If Republicans decide that Jim Jordan should be the speaker of the House … there would no longer be any possible way to argue that a group of elected Republicans could be counted on to defend the Constitution.”

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