CNN’s Brian Stelter Appears on MSNBC to Talk Trump-Fox News Book With Rachel Maddow

In a rare cable news crossover, CNN’s Brian Stelter appeared on MSNBC Friday night to talk with Rachel Maddow about his new book Hoax on the relationship between President Donald Trump and Fox News.

Maddow opened with a segment reading selections from Stelter’s book, with particular emphasis on the coronavirus, what Trump was hearing from Fox Newsers early on, and claims Trump himself made early on, like that the virus would go away in April with the warmer weather.

Stelter said to Maddow he’s heard from “so many sources” inside Fox lamenting the direction the network has taken, and said that comments from some hosts on Fox about the coronavirus may have “lulled [Trump] into a false sense of complacency.”

Maddow — who said at the outset she generally doesn’t like talking about cable news wars — reviewed how Stelter’s book details a lot of what Trump tweets about regularly comes from Fox News, even from just chyrons.

“You describe them as sort of a shadow cable news government that appears to select policies for him knowingly,” she said.

Stelter said it’s the primetime stars at Fox News and the hosts of Fox & Friends who “have the power” and “are the ones talking to Trump,” despite what his book reports some of them have said privately about the president.

“It’s hard to imagine the president at 40 percent approval were it not for these people on Fox,” Stelter said, “who — I’m sorry, Rachel, I don’t like to talk this way — they’re lying about him every day. They are talking about a president that doesn’t actually exist.”

You can watch the interview above, via MSNBC.