Vance Cornered on Mystery Over Fox News Star for Leavitt’s Job

Fox News star Maria Bartiromo may have abruptly departed the network, but there’s one place she’s not likely to go next—at least according to JD Vance.

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The vice president hit the White House podium on Thursday for the first press briefing since Karoline Leavitt left the administration and was confronted about the sudden exit of the Fox host and Trump ally.

“I don’t know, man. Ahh, no, I don’t think so. You know, I just saw the news literally as I walked out here,” he said.

“I love Maria; I think she’s an amazing person, amazing talent,” he added.

“I don’t get involved in the personal drama of media stations—in fact, I’d like to invite (Fox White House reporter) Peter Doocy to come up here and answer questions about what happened to Maria. But I think whatever she does, she’s going to do great, and I wish her all the best.”

The comments came moments after Fox, owned by Trump’s on-again-off-again media ally Rupert Murdoch, announced on Thursday that Bartiromo was leaving the company after 12½ years, effective immediately.

The network offered no explanation, saying only that it wished her well in her “next chapter.”

Her final episode of Mornings With Maria aired on Thursday morning, while her other programs are being handed to rotating hosts.

Vance described Bartiromo as a “very dear friend” but added: “I haven’t even talked to her, so I don’t know the backstory about why she had decided to leave Fox.”

The timing nonetheless sent the rumor mill into overdrive, particularly given her relationship with Trump.

Once a respected financial journalist at CNBC, she became one of Fox’s most enthusiastic Trump-friendly voices, regularly interviewing the president and embracing his political worldview.

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She was also a central character in the fallout from Fox’s coverage of the 2020 election.

Evidence released in the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit showed Bartiromo entertaining and amplifying election-fraud claims, even as Fox hosts privately expressed doubts.

Dominion ultimately settled its defamation lawsuit against Fox for $787.5 million in 2023.

The White House, meanwhile, still doesn’t have a press secretary after Leavitt left last month to devote more time to her two young children.

She will continue to advise the president behind the scenes with MAGA Inc, the shadowy super PAC that has amassed a $400 million war chest that Trump now controls.

Several names have been floated as possible replacements for Leavitt, and Trump claims there has been no shortage of interest.

“I’ve never had so many job applications in my life,” he told reporters recently, adding that Leavitt had “made that job very glamorous.”

Among those in the mix are CNN’s resident MAGA mouthpiece, Scott Jennings, who has quietly met with Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, since the press secretary position opened up.

Other contenders include Trump’s former personal lawyer Alina Habba; chief of protocol and former conservative commentator Monica Crowley; former Trump campaign spokesperson Jason Miller; and Leavitt’s Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly.