Fox News says it “does not condone” its hosts “participating in campaign events” as Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro did during a campaign rally with President Trump in Missouri on Monday night.
A network spokesperson on Tuesday called the event “an unfortunate distraction” that “has been addressed.”
“FOX News does not condone any talent participating in campaign events,” read a statement to The Hill. “We have an extraordinary team of journalists helming our coverage tonight and we are extremely proud of their work. This was an unfortunate distraction and has been addressed.”
{mosads}Hannity took to Twitter to also address the controversial decision to appear onstage. The host had stated in a tweet earlier on Monday that he would not do so, and wrote on Tuesday afternoon he was surprised but honored by the president’s request.
“What I said in my tweet yesterday was 100% truthful,” he wrote to his more than 3.8 million followers. “When the POTUS invited me on stage to give a few remarks last night, I was surprised, yet honored by the president’s request. This was NOT planned.”
Hannity’s earlier tweet had appeared to rule out the possibility of campaigning with the president:
Early during his remarks at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau, Hannity pointed to the press holding area and said, “All those people in the back are fake news,” which included journalists from Fox News covering the event.
“To be clear, I was not referring to my journalist colleagues at FOX News in those remarks,” Hannity wrote in a subsequent tweet. “They do amazing work day in and day out in a fair and balanced way and It is an honor to work with such great professionals.”
Hannity, a staunch advocate of the president, once appeared in a campaign ad for then-candidate Trump in September 2016, which also drew a rebuke from the network.
“We were not aware of Sean Hannity participating in a promotional video and he will not be doing anything along these lines for the remainder of the election season,” a network spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill at the time.