FOX News suspected of pulling Trump impeachment ad after Trump's tweet

Fox News is being accused of withdrawing an anti-Trump ad after President Trump criticized the California businessman behind it on Twitter, reports Newsweek.

According to Mediaite, the network stopped running Tom Steyer’s ad, which calls for the president’s impeachment citing obstruction of justice and money taken from foreign governments, among other claims, on October 31 even though it was supposed to run for another week.

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

However, critics, including Steyer, have noted that the conservative network made the decision soon after Trump tweeted about him on October 27, writing, “Wacky & totally unhinged Tom Steyer, who has been fighting me and my Make America Great Again agenda from beginning, never wins elections!”

In an appearance on MSNBC, the wealthy environmentalist pointed out the timing of the ad pull in relation to Trump’s tweet and said, “We don’t know why, we don’t know whether it was a request from the White House, but what we do know is that [Fox News is] censoring the voice of [1.6 million] Americans who have an opinion that they’re either scared of or scared to air.”

Steyer was referring to the number of people who have thus far signed his group’s online petition supporting Trump’s impeachment.

The businessman’s lawyers have, in the meantime, sent a letter to Fox News claiming a breach of contract and what they call “a profound failure of journalistic integrity, a suppression of constitutionally protected speech, and likely a consequence of inexcusable political pressure.”