Fox News Largely Ignores McCarthy Tapes Bombshell, CNN Says His Name Over 75 Times in Two Hours

Much of Friday’s morning media coverage was dominated by the publication of leaked tapes on which House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) can be heard saying he would encourage then-President Donald Trump to resign following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The tapes were reported on by the New York Times Thursday, which quickly prompted a statement from McCarthy saying the Times report was “totally false and wrong.” The Times then released the audio, which spoke for itself.

News consumers woke up to a bevy of newsletter headlines like Politico’s Playbook asking “Is Kevin McCarthy toast?” or the Bulwark’s “The Humiliation of Kevin McCarthy” and the National Journal Hotline’s “NYT Releases Kevin McCarthy Tapes.”

The cable news networks too dug in with exhaustive coverage — with the notable exception of Fox News. Across two hours of CNN, Inside Politics with John King and Newsroom with Ana Cabrera, McCarthy’s name was mentioned over 75 times, according to a SnapStream search.

Meanwhile, the same search finds that the last mention of McCarthy on Fox News was on Thursday night’s episode of Special Report with Bret Baier, noting McCarthy “is going to be leading the Republican delegation down to the [southern] border.” As of publication, Fox News had not mentioned the McCarthy tapes once.

On MSNBC, McCarthy was mentioned 36 times in two hours on Meet the Press Daily hosted by Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell Reports, each discussing extensively the political implications of McCarthy’s comments.

Online reactions to the story came from all directions and headlines on sites like Newsweek read, “Trump Critics Rip McCarthy After Audio Leak Shows He Wanted Trump to Resign” and Insider ran six different stories on the topic, including headlines like “Democrats tear into Kevin McCarthy after leaked audio shows he privately blamed Trump for Jan. 6, calling him ‘feckless, spineless’ and a ‘liar’” and “Trump is reportedly glad Kevin McCarthy didn’t push him to resign after the Capitol riot and sees it as a sign of his control over the GOP.”

Fox News digital did touch the story, publishing a headline titled, “McCarthy rebuts reporting on leaked recordings recommending Trump resign as Cheney, Scalise deny involvement.” Additionally, Neil Cavuto asked Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) about the tapes on his Fox Business show.

Update: Fox New’s Trace Gallagher broke the news on the network in the 3 p.m. hour of The Story with Marth MacCallum, nothing that McCarthy denied “he told fellow Republicans that he would encourage Trump to resign” — contradicting the audio on the tapes.