Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin, 50, two weeks ago declared a war of sorts on President Donald Trump, when she began to respond in a distinctly un-Fox News like manner to his tweets on US troops withdrawal from northeastern Syria, including his recent declaration: “We never gave a commitment to the Kurds.”
Griffin tweeted in response: “Not true, according to a former top senior military adviser to President Trump, ‘We told them over and over, We are your friends. We will never leave you.’”
Fox News Correspondent: Kurdish Commander Says Turkey is Continuing Airstrikes Despite Ceasefirehttps://t.co/ZDYnQnKJ2s
— Mediaite (@Mediaite)
Griffin, who reported from the Middle East for several years before getting the Pentagon beat in 2007, told POLITICO on Wednesday (Meet the Fox reporter who is bedeviling Trump on Syria) that her declaration of “fake news” was based on a conversation with “someone extremely senior,” culminating “a wild two weeks” of her reporting on the Syria withdrawal. “I am able to fact-check because I am constantly gathering information,” she boasted.
The last Fox News anchor who criticized President Trump, Shepard Smith, has been tossed off the airwaves on October 11, after 23 years of working for the rightwing channel, since its maiden broadcast in 1996. Speculation has it that Trump’s Attorney General William Barr met privately with Fox owner Rupert Murdoch to demand the pesky journalist’s ouster.
Griffin is much less visible than Shepard Smith, but her days, too, may be numbered. Because her criticism is focused on only the Syrian aspect of the Trump agenda, she enjoys the support of hawkish Republican lawmakers and the media – which may anger Trump even more. Illinois Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger cited Griffin’s reporting on CNN, as did highly respected conservatives like Peggy Noonan, Peter Wehner, and Jonah Goldberg. MSNBC’s Willie Geist and CNN’s Christiane Amanpour have leaped at the opportunity to quote a Fox News reporter attacking the president.
Griffin recently tweeted quotes from a “US Special Forces soldier” who fought alongside the Kurds and said he was “ashamed for the first time in my career.” That string of tweets went viral, with more than 400,000 likes and retweets, adding some 20,000 followers to Griffin’s Twitter account.
According to POLITICO, Griffin has not been invited in recent weeks to appear on any Fox News opinion shows.
