Kimberly Guilfoyle is appreciative that she was on the shortlist for White House press secretary in the incoming Donald Trump administration.
As expected, however, the job went to Sean Spicer, communications director of the Republican National Committee in Washington for the past five years. This outcome is perhaps not surprising since Spicer’s boss, RNC chair Reince Priebus, is now Trump’s chief of staff. There was some chatter that Spicer and Guilfoyle could share the job, but that apparently never came to fruition.
Other members of the White House communications team include Hope Hicks and Dan Scavino, both of whom worked closely with the president-elect during the campaign. “Mr. Trump is expected to have a much different communications strategy than past White House teams,” the Wall Street Journal observed .
A vocal Trump supporter, Guilfoyle is the co-host of The Five that airs on the Fox News Channel Monday through Friday at 5 p.m. Eastern which features five panelists in a roundtable discussion format, and also regularly appears on other FNC shows as a political and legal commentator. A ratings success, The Five airs in the former Glenn Beck time slot. Beck has since joined up with the #NeverTrump cohort. “KG” has taken a few days off from the show during the holiday season.
No one other than insiders knows exactly what was discussed between Guilfoyle and transition team members during several meetings, according to multiple news accounts , at Trump Tower about the press secretary job, but Guilfoyle would have had to take a pay cut and move with her young son from New York City to D.C.
On the other hand, working in the West Wing is a grueling proposition, and given the turnover that is likely to occur, the door is presumably not completely shut for any qualified person interested in a role, press secretary or otherwise, in the Trump administration.
Moreover, a former press secretary can generally write his or her own ticket in media or public relations after leaving government service, and Fox (or a competitor) would probably re-hire her in a New York minute, if it ever came to that.
Radio talk show host and media entrepreneur Laura Ingraham was also reportedly under consideration for the job, but financial ramifications may have also been a stumbling block.
The former high-profile California prosecutor and later first lady of San Francisco when she was married to then-Mayor Gavin Newsom (a Democrat who is now his state’s lieutenant governor), Guilfoyle, 47, worked for Court TV and CNN before signing on with Fox News in January of 2006.
Kimberly Guilfoyle told TV Newser that she was “very flattered and honored” to be one of the apparent finalists for the press secretary role.
“I’m a patriot…Like my late father who came here and served his country as a member of the U.S. Army. I would be flattered and honored to be considered for any position where I could serve my country. I love working for Fox News, and I feel like I play for the Yankees every day. I’m with the best lineup in the business. I have my eye on the ball, and I am focused on the new year at Fox News, and I’m really excited about what we can do.”
As she has done for the past eight years on the network, Guilfoyle is co-anchoring the Fox New Year’s Eve broadcast (the “All-American New Year”) with The Five co-host Eric Bolling from Times Square in Manhattan
According to the San Francisco Chronicle , Kimberly Guilfoyle is the daughter of an Irish cop and a Puerto Rican schoolteacher and was born in San Francisco. She is a graduate of the University of San Francisco School of Law and includes modeling for the Victoria’s Secret catalog on her resume.
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