“Of course, the first thing that occurred to me is that, unfortunately, we have a disgruntled employee, a colleague,” she says. “I read that her show wasn’t being renewed and , being a lawyer, I thought she got angry. I deal with Roger Ailes often. I’ve often been alone with Roger Ailes in his office over the course of 15 years and I’ve never seen anything like what I’m reading about in the papers and the magazine.”
Van Susteren also notes that the Fox network is like a small town, where everybody knows everybody and knows who’s sexually harassing whom. Also, Ailes cherishes women!
“People come to me because I’ve been there so long,” she says. “That’s why this doesn’t have any ring of truth to me. I would have heard it. People don’t keep things silent.”
Regarding the claims that Ailes sabotaged Carlson’s career because she refused sexual advances and complained about sever and pervasive sexual harassment, Van Susteren says that she found them odd considering Ailes “was first to put a woman in primetime,” meaning Catherine Crier.
Van Susteren didn’t comment on a statement from Carlson’s lawyers, saying at least 10 other women want to talk to them about Ailes.
Ailes has denied the allegations. The network’s parent company, 21st Century Fox, says they’re conducting an “internal review.”
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