Former Fox News personality Monica Crowley is joining the Trump administration.
Crowley will join Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s staff in the role of spokeswoman. She will replace outgoing spokesperson Tony Sayegh in May.
Fox pundit joins Trump admin
Crowley joined Fox when the network launched in 1996 and worked there on and off as a commentator until 2017, when she left with plans to join the Trump administration. She was originally set to serve as a senior communications aide to former national security adviser Michael Flynn in 2016, but she dropped out after media reports accused her of plagiarizing part of her 2012 book What the (Bleep) Just Happened? and her Ph.D. thesis.
The longtime Fox pundit said that the allegations were a “political hit job.” Now, Crowley is joining the Treasury Department to serve as assistant secretary for public affairs.
Crowley is known for her fiery, conservative commentary. As Breitbart notes, the “firebrand” Crowley was an early supporter of Trump and predicted that Trump could win the election.
Crowley is also a former New York Post columnist and a regular contributor to the national radio program The John Batchelor Show. She served as a foreign policy assistant to former President Richard Nixon from 1990 to 1994 and wrote two books about him.
She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University in international relations.
Democrats complain of Fox, White House links
Crowley is not the first Fox employee to join the Trump administration. Other Fox alums who have moved on to the Trump White House include White House Director of Strategic Communications Mercedes Schlapp, national security adviser John Bolton, former State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, and former White House communications directors Anthony Scaramucci and Bill Shine.
Crowley’s hiring will likely play into Democrats’ allegations of a nepotistic relationship between the Trump White House and Fox, which liberals often call “state media” for its pro-Trump coverage and close links between Trump and several Fox employees, including Jeanine Pirro and Sean Hannity. Democrats recently barred Fox from covering their 2020 primary debates over a New Yorker report about the network’s connections with Trump.
However, Trump has criticized Fox in recent weeks for its decision to host Bernie Sanders at a town hall.
Crowley’s hiring also comes as her new boss, Mnuchin, is facing demands from Democrats for Trump’s tax returns. House Ways and Means Committee chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) made the request earlier this month, prompting a certain legal battle between the White House and the Democrats.
Mnuchin has pushed back against Democrats’ demands, saying he will seek a legal opinion from the Justice Department. Neal set a new April 23 deadline for Trump’s tax returns after Mnuchin blew past a previous arbitrary deadline.
Besides handling Trump’s tax returns, Mnuchin has also been tasked with trumpeting the president’s economic success heading into the 2020 campaign. The addition of Crowley to Trump’s team may indicate that the president is looking for a sharp spokesperson for that role.
Trump has also shaken up his Homeland Security staff lately, as he declared he would be taking things in a “tougher” direction.
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