Fox News host Tucker Carlson was offered the position of White House Press Secretary and turned it down, according to Michael Wolff’s book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.”
Wolff claims that several current Fox personalities were considered for the job including Laura Ingraham, Maria Bartiromo, and Ann Coulter.
The White House has demanded an apology and retraction from Wolff over the accounts in his book. They sent Wolff and his publisher a cease and desist letter Thursday.
"Your publication of the false/baseless statements about Mr. Trump gives rise to, among other claims, defamation by libel, defamation by libel per se, false light invasion of privacy, tortious interference with contractual relations, and inducement of breach of contract," the letter from Trump attorney Charles Harder reads, according to a copy obtained by USA TODAY.
The veracity of Wolff’s writing has been called in to question many times in the past.
Wolff addresses this himself in the introduction to the book pic.twitter.com/4gSebnhJCB
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) January 3, 2018
The book started a major feud between President Trump and his former chief strategist Steve Bannon Wednesday. According to excerpts from the book, Bannon called Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer in Trump tower on the campaign trail “treasonous,” adding that Trump Jr. “should have called the FBI immediately.”
Following the release of these excerpts, President Trump released a scathing statement about Bannon, writing that when Bannon was fired “he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.”
Unlike some of the other “sources” cited in Wolff’s account, Bannon has yet to dispute the quotes Wolff attributes to him.