BOOK: John Boehner Offered Roger Ailes Benghazi Info To Stop Fox News From Booking Fringe Republicans

From reporter Yashar Ali’s newsletter:

In 2014, then-Speaker of the House John Boehner tried to bait Fox News Chief Roger Ailes into pulling certain conservative lawmakers off the Fox airwaves by revealing non-public information about a forthcoming House investigation into the Benghazi attack, according to a new book set to be released next week.

The book, “American Carnage” by Politico Magazine correspondent Tim Alberta, also shares that Ailes—who at the time was the CEO and chairman of Fox News— told Boehner, without any evidence and in a rant that reads as bizarre and unhinged, that President Barack Obama was spying on him.

According to Alberta, Boehner met with Ailes to deliver a request: Stop booking guests from the fringe of the GOP—the members who only sought conflict and not solutions, including Reps. Louie Gohmert, Steve King, and Michele Bachmann. Boehner felt that by giving these members a platform on the most-watched cable news network, Ailes was making Boehner’s job as speaker more difficult.