Fox News slammed Republican Rep. James Comer’s “insulting” assertion that Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy purposely gave him negative coverage due to Comer’s run-in with Doocy’s daughter, calling the suggestion “off base.”
Comer, the GOP chair of the powerful House Oversight Committee, claims in a new book that during his probe into Joe Biden and the president’s family businesses, he had a bit of an altercation with Doocy’s daughter, who works for the FBI. Oliver Darcy first reported on the excerpt in his Status newsletter.
According to Comer’s account in All the President’s Money, which hits bookshelves this week, there was an incident between him and Doocy’s daughter when he was handed a heavily redacted document to review in a secure room. The document was apparently related to his Biden probe, which ultimately showed no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing by the president.
Writing that he angrily rejected the document, Comer went on to assert that his “hasty return” of the document resulted in Doocy’s daughter seemingly becoming “p*ssed” off. He then goes on to claim that Doocy and his son Peter, who is a White House correspondent for Fox News, retaliated against him in response to the episode.
“Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but her father, ‘Fox & Friends’ host Steve Doocy, and her brother, Fox White House correspondent Peter Doocy, would soon become my biggest critics on Fox News for the remainder of the investigation,” he declared. “And they didn’t let up off camera either. Many of the White House videos criticizing me, and many of the legacy media outlets’ false narratives citing disparaging comments about me and the investigation, were from the Doocys.”
The Republican congressman is likely referring to the Fox & Friends host’s open skepticism of his investigation into the Bidens, which eventually fizzled out amid a bevy of conspiracy theories, half-baked allegations and discredited witnesses. During a June 2023 appearance on the Fox morning show, for instance, Comer was repeatedly pressed by Doocy to show the “goods” to prove his accusations of a “criminal scheme” perpetrated by the president.
Months later, when House Republicans were preparing to vote to formalize the impeachment inquiry, Peter Doocy reported that Comer still had no “concrete evidence” to support allegations that Biden had illegally benefited from his family’s businesses. Comer would later tell Newsmax that he “quit” going on Fox & Friends to avoid “critical” questions about the probe.
Responding to the allegations in Comer’s book, a Fox News spokesperson tore into the Kentucky lawmaker. “The first time Steve Doocy and Peter Doocy were even made aware of what took place in the SCIF with James Comer was tonight when they saw this book excerpt which speaks volumes about how scrupulous they are and the high ethical bar their family operates with. Suffice it to say Comer’s attack is off base and insulting,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Fox News isn’t the only one pushing back on claims made by the bombastic MAGA congressman in his book, which is being published by Fox’s corporate cousin HarperCollins. Legendary journalist Bob Woodward vehemently denied to The Guardian that he supposedly told Comer that the president was financially corrupt.
“The statements attributed to me in what is apparently his book are false. I made none of those statements he attributes to me. I repeat none, and not even in a paraphrased form,” Woodward said, adding that Comer was “peddling stories, conclusions and allegations that just do not check out at all.”
Meanwhile, it remains to be seen if Comer will be given a platform on Fox News programming to promote his book, considering that he uses it to attack two of the network’s most prominent on-air personalities. While Comer did appear on Sean Hannity’s show on Monday evening, that was also around the same time that the network first responded to the excerpt about the Doocys.
Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Comer had been booked for future promotional appearances. At the same time, the news cycle over the next few days will be extremely busy, including Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing, pre-inauguration preparations, and the Los Angeles wildfires.
