Former DNC chair Donna Brazile to join Fox News - POLITICO

Former DNC chair Donna Brazile's move comes as some in the Democratic Party have accused Fox News of functioning as state-run television for President Donald Trump. | Kamil Krzaczynski/Getty Images

Former interim DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile is joining Fox News as a commentator, the network said on Monday.

The longtime Democratic operative will offer commentary on both Fox News and Fox Business, and her move comes as some in the Democratic Party have accused the channel of functioning as state-run television for President Donald Trump, especially after an article in the New Yorker outlined how intertwined the network is with Trump’s White House.

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Brazile in a statement said she was “delighted” to join the network and said she was eager to represent Democrats for Fox News viewers, who she argued don’t “hear enough from Democrats.”

She acknowledged that she might catch heat from members of her party for the move, saying that “my response is that, if we've learned anything from the 2016 election, it is that we can't have a country where we don't talk to those who disagree with our political views.”

Prior to serving as the head of the Democratic National Committee briefly during the 2016 election, Brazile had been a longtime commentator on networks like ABC and CNN. The latter severed ties with Brazile just weeks before the election after WikiLeaks published emails in which she tipped off members of Hillary Clinton’s campaign about questions at a debate and town hall during the Democratic primary.

A source with knowledge of internal workings at Fox News nodded at those accusations, saying Monday that Brazile will not have anything to do with the debate or town hall process at the network. The network, however, will not be hosting any Democratic primary debates after the DNC announced that Fox News was not a suitable host following the publication of the New Yorker article.

Brazile’s contributorship begins immediately, with her first appearance coming Monday afternoon on Dana Perino’s “Daily Briefing.”

Though Fox News consistently tops ratings lists over rivals CNN and MSNBC, it has also come under scrutiny for controversial behavior by former top executives and hosts at the network.

The network cleared house in 2016 when then-CEO Roger Ailes was accused of sexual harassment, and Bill O’Reilly, then one of the channel’s biggest stars, was similarly removed after news broke that the network had settled multiple sexual harassment claims on his behalf.

More recently, two of the network's most popular hosts have attracted scrutiny for controversial remarks. Tucker Carlson came under fire last week after liberal media watchdog Media Matters posted audio of him making disparaging comments about women and talking about child rape.

And Judge Jeanine Pirro’s weekend show was pulled this past Saturday, a step that drew fierce criticism from the president, after a rebuke from the network over Islamophobic remarks she made about freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).

Brazile made no mention of those controversies in her announcement that she would join the network, nor in an op-ed posted on Fox News’ website in which she acknowledged that she’d made “more than my fair share” of mistakes. Instead, she touted an emphasis on civility and welcomed her ideological opposites on the network challenging her beliefs.

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