CNN’s Kaitlan Collins has detailed the ruthless way Maria Bartiromo was fired by Fox News for allegedly leaking confidential company information to Donald Trump’s White House.
A bombshell report from Status revealed that Bartiromo was ousted after she disclosed an internal company message to the White House. She is believed to have offered an explanation for why the network was not covering Trump’s flop primetime address in July, which featured unsubstantiated claims that China had meddled in the 2020 election.
Fox News had told all employees to steer clear of covering Trump’s conspiracy theory-laden speech in its coverage. Status’ Oliver Darcy reported that Bartiromo had not only “effectively betrayed” her employer but had also allegedly violated the terms of her employment agreement by handing the memo over to Trump’s team.
On Thursday night’s episode of The Source, Collins noted that the network had “abruptly” fired Bartiromo with no real explanation as to why, but said sources had confirmed to CNN that she had been fired “because she disclosed confidential information to the Trump White House.”
“It was a pretty unceremonious exit, with no televised sign-off or real acknowledgment beyond a terse statement thanking her for her 12 and a half years of work at the network,” Collins said.
Brian Stelter, CNN’s chief media analyst, suggested to Collins that Bartiromo was desperate to cover Trump’s speech and the unsubstantiated claims about the election results from six years ago.
Fox News was understandably cautious about pushing Trump’s false election fraud claims. In 2023, Fox settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for more than $787 million after the network, including Bartiromo, repeatedly amplified false claims that its voting machines were used to rig the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden. A similar defamation suit from Smartmatic against Fox and Bartiromo is still being litigated.
Stelter also suggested there were similarities between Bartiromo’s abrupt firing and the removal of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in 2023, following a string of scandals involving the primetime anchor.
“That was another shocking Fox departure, and the story that came out on day one was not the full story,” Stelter said. “There were multiple factors behind the scenes where the executives were kind of getting tired of this larger-than-life star and perhaps uncomfortable with some behind-the-scenes behavior.”
Stelter also suggested that Bartiromo’s firing was a sign that Fox News was no longer going to “tolerate that kind of conspiratorial c--p” about election fraud on its airwaves.
“They’ve been very expensive. They’ve been a huge headache, and that might say something about 2026 as we look to the midterms and all the concern about how Trump might try to meddle in the midterms,” Stelter said.
“Fox is pro-Trump in many other ways, but I think in some ways they might be drawing a line, not just in the past, but maybe in the future.”
Elsewhere, Mediaite reported that Bartiromo’s own staffers were told not to speak to her in the weeks before she was fired.
A Fox News spokesperson told Status that Bartiromo’s dismissal “was a business decision and the release speaks for itself.”
The Daily Beast has contacted Fox News for comment.
