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Fox News host Mark Levin, a longtime conservative radio host who joined the network in 2017 to host a weekly television show, got personally involved in a Virginia State Senate election, serving as the “special guest” and speaker at a campaign rally on Monday.
Levin also participated in a May 19 fundraiser for the candidate, Republican Geary Higgins, who lost his race for a Senate seat to Democrat John Bell.
The candidate personally thanked Levin for his speech. “We had a fantastic rally yesterday with many fellow patriots!” Higgins wrote yesterday on Facebook. “Thanks to Mark Levin for his rousing speech and for coming out to support our incredible Republican ticket.”
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Levin’s participation in both a campaign rally and a campaign fundraiser is notable considering the network’s general prohibition on such activity.
“Fox News does not condone any talent participating in campaign events,” the network said in a statement on Nov. 6, 2018, a day after hosts Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro joined President Donald Trump onstage at a campaign rally and spoke. “This was an unfortunate distraction and has been addressed.”
The Hollywood Reporter reached out Wednesday to Fox News for comment and will update the story in the event of a response.
Levin has been open about his support for Higgins. “My choice in a very important Virginia state senate race, Geary Higgins,” he wrote on Twitter in June. The campaign included Levin in a graphic of “conservative Republicans” who have endorsed the candidate.
The Higgins campaign announced Levin’s participation in the May fundraiser earlier in the spring. “Syndicated talk show host and best-selling author Mark Levin is headlining a fundraiser hosted by Loudoun County Supervisor Geary Higgins (R-Catoctin) on Sunday May 19th from 2-4PM at the Old Waterford School in Waterford, Virginia,” a press release read.
In the release, Higgins said he was “honored” to have Levin’s support: “Mark has championed conservative principles throughout his life and during his career in the Reagan administration. He continues to lead the charge in protecting our values and pushing back against the growing onslaught of attacks on our Constitution and liberties by the left.”
“I’m tired of the losers telling us we’re going to lose,” Levin said at the May fundraiser, according to a video broadcast by the campaign. “This is our country. It’s our Constitution. This is our state. This is our county. This is our candidate. We’ve got to make sure we pull him across the finish line.”
Levin’s show, Life, Liberty and Levin, was recently given a two-hour bump and now airs at 8 p.m. ET on Sundays. He also hosts a syndicated radio show.
On Monday, Higgins praised Levin in his campaign rally remarks, an audio recording of which was obtained by THR. “I watch his program, and when I can’t watch it, I record it and watch it later,” the candidate said. “It’s not a normal commentary program. It’s like going to class.”
In rousing remarks about the importance of the Virginia elections, Levin told the crowd: “I’m not typically this way, but vote Republican, every damn one of them. … You’re not running just against Democrats here. You’re running against leftists. It’s time to push back. It’s time to push back. It’s time to show them who we are.”
On Wednesday, after the progressive advocacy group Media Matters for America flagged Levin’s campaign activity, he responded angrily on his radio show.
“They’re very upset that I supported a local candidate for the State Senate in my own community, as well as other local candidates,” he said. “And, you see, I violate the rules at Fox, they said. Let me explain something to them and the whole world: I didn’t violate any rules, number one. Number two is: I will never be silenced. Ever. … They don’t get to tell me what to do. Nobody does.”
Levin said he will sue Media Matters if he is fired from Fox News. “If I’m ever yanked off the air for anything Media Matters does, I will sue them, oh yes I will, for interfering with my contract,” he said.
“If I want to support a friend who’s running for the State Senate, well damn it I will do it,” he said. “I should have done more for him. If I want to support my local sheriff, then damn it I will do it. And nobody on this planet is going to stop me. No corporation. No left-wing group funded by billionaire, America-hating pukes. Nobody.”
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