‘Impeach Trump’ ad taken off air by Fox News

NEW YORK — Fox News Channel says it will not air any more advertisements from a wealthy Democratic donor calling for the impeachment of U.S. President Donald Trump’s due its viewers’ strong negative reaction.

One negative reaction was from Trump himself, who wrote on Twitter that donor Tom Steyer was “wacky and totally unhinged.”

Steyer, a billionaire hedge-fund operator, calls on television viewers to sign a petition urging Trump’s impeachment. His lawyer, Brad Deutsch, said on Monday that 1.5 million people had signed the petition.

“People in Congress and his own administration know that this president is a clear-and-present danger, who’s mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons, and they do nothing,” Steyer said in the ad, which also aired on CNN and other stations.

It aired three times on the morning of Oct. 27 during Fox & Friends, a show popular with Trump. Trump tweeted about “wacky and totally unhinged Tom Steyer, who has been fighting me and my Make America Great Again agenda.” Steyer had bought seven more ads for the following week on Fox News, Deutsch said, but the company cancelled them.

“Due to the strong negative reaction to their ad by our viewers, we could not in good conscience take their money,” said Jack Abernethy, co-president of Fox News.

Deutsch said Steyer believes that Fox succumbed to pressure from the White House to scuttle the ad.