Media

Bob Beckel Breaks Confidentiality Agreement, Says Fox News Exit Was A Set-Up

Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
Font Size:

Former Fox News contributor Bob Beckel admitted to violating his confidentiality agreement Saturday during a radio interview, claiming that his exit from the network was a “set-up.”

Beckel, who called in to St. Louis-based KFTK 97.1 FM, spoke with hosts of the weekly politics wrap-up show “The Weekend Report” about the circumstances surrounding his termination from Fox News — despite telling producers prior to the show that he could not discuss it for legal reasons.

TWR host Tony Colombo told the Daily Caller that he had his producer ask Beckel prior to the interview whether he could comment about the reasons he left the network.

“I figured he wouldn’t be able to talk about it, you know,” Colombo explained. “And that’s what he told my producer, that for legal reasons he couldn’t say anything. But then just as we were wrapping up the show, I was saying thanks for coming on, and he said, ‘Can I just say one more thing?’ And then he said he knew he wasn’t allowed to talk about it but he didn’t care anymore.”

Beckel, one of the original hosts of the Fox News panel show “The Five,” was fired by the network in May 2017 after, according to a statement, he made “an insensitive remark to an African-American employee.” (RELATED: Bob Beckel Fired From Fox News — Again)

But Beckel argued that claims of racism were absurd, telling Colombo and his cohost Chris Arps that the whole thing was a set-up designed to push him out of the network. He then suggested that the real reason he was being ousted was his persistence in saying negative things about President Donald Trump.

“I’ve decided to use your radio show to be the first time I will say this to anybody, and that is in my view that I was completely set up by someone, and my guess is they may be outside the White House, and I was set up on an absurd, racist comment,” Beckel said, pointing out the fact that three generations of his family had worked for civil rights. “People who know me were shocked that that would happen. Well, they were shocked because it didn’t happen.”

Beckel went on to claim that while Michael Cohen was still employed by the president, the former Trump-fixer had called him to warn against saying negative things about Trump.

“Trump and I had known each other for a long time. I don’t like him, he doesn’t like me, that’s fine,” Beckel continued. “But the fact that I was set up like that, no appeal, no chance to make my case … this was not about a racist comment. This was because I was the loudest voice on that network against Donald Trump.”

“There you have it, as far as I’m going, although I’m taking some action in the next six months to try to redress that,” Beckel concluded, hinting at upcoming legal action and admitting that he had just violated the terms of his exit contract with Fox News.

“I have broken that agreement, and that’s too bad,” he concluded.

Fox News did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.

LISTEN (11:45):