‘We’re FINISHED with Rubio’ – Fox News’ head honcho Roger Ailes loses confidence in Marco

The New York Times might have done in Marco Rubio’s campaign, as it’s being reported that Roger Ailes, the Fox News head honcho is declaring that he’s lost confidence in him after a poor showing on Super Tuesday, and the “gang of eight” report implicating Ailes himself.

New York Mag explains:

…this alliance now seems to be over. According to three Fox sources, Fox chief Roger Ailes has told people he’s lost confidence in Rubio’s ability to win. “We’re finished with Rubio,” Ailes recently told a Fox host. “We can’t do the Rubio thing anymore.”

Ailes was already concerned about Rubio’s lackluster performance in GOP primaries and caucuses, winning only one contest among the 15 that have been held. But the more proximate cause for the flip was an embarrassing New York Times article revealing that Rubio and Ailes had a secret dinner meeting in 2013 during which the Florida senator successfully lobbied the Fox News chief to throw his support behind the “Gang of 8” comprehensive immigration-reform bill. “Roger hates seeing his name in print,” a longtime Ailes associate told me. “He was appalled the dinner was reported,” the source said.

Already, there are on-air signs that Fox’s attitude toward Rubio has cooled. This morning, anchor Martha MacCallum grilled Rubio about his poor Super Tuesday performance. “Is that a viable excuse at this point?” she asked, when he tried spinning his second-place finish in Virginia.

Fox’s corporate support of Rubio has also been a growing source of tension with the network’s more conservative talent. Sean Hannity was furious that the Times article reported how he went along with Rubio’s immigration proposal. During an interview with Trump on Monday, Hannity barely defended Fox while Trump trashed Rubio backers like Hayes. “He shouldn’t be on the air,” Trump said. The best Hannity could muster was to change the subject. “Have you ever watched MSNBC?” he said. “They suck.”

Wow.

This would explain why Ann Coulter was railing on Hannity yesterday on Twitter, and why he got so angry at her in his defense:

And why he lashed out at a Politico writer over a quote made by the Rubio campaign about him:

I’m not sure why he got so angry at the reporter over the Rubio camp quote, but well, there it is.

It looks like the establishment faith in Rubio might be eroding. The Marco camp had said they didn’t expect to do well on Super Tuesday, and that they would start winning on March 13th, with Florida and later states. But will they make it that far?!


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