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Members of Trump’s impeachment team have been fixtures on cable news, primarily Fox

  • According to Media Matters’ internal database, the House members and lawyers comprising President Donald Trump’s impeachment team have been on weekday cable news over 1,600 times since August 2017 -- mostly on Fox. Of the 1,638 appearances, 1,368 have been on Fox News, 185 on CNN, and just 85 on MSNBC.

    Appearances by members of Trump impeachment team on weekday cable news

    Trump's impeachment team consists of Republican Reps. Jim Jordan (OH), John Ratcliffe (TX), Mike Johnson (LA), Mark Meadows (NC), Debbie Lesko (AZ), Lee Zeldin (NY), Elise Stefanik (NY), and Doug Collins (GA) as well as lawyers Pat Cipollone, Jay Sekulow, Alan Dershowitz, Ken Starr, Robert Ray, Pam Bondi, Jane Raskin, and Eric Herschmann. 

    Here’s the breakdown of Trump’s legal team appearances from August 1, 2017, through January 17, 2020, on weekday cable news:

    • Alan Dershowitz has had at least 359 appearances on cable news in that time frame. He’s been on Fox 288 times, CNN 53 times, and MSNBC 18 times. While he used to appear on all networks with some regularity, since late 2018 he’s appeared almost exclusively on Fox News. 
    • Ken Starr appeared at least 178 times on cable news, with 151 of those appearances happening on Fox News. Before Starr became a Fox News contributor, he had 24 appearances on CNN and three appearances on MSNBC.
    • Pam Bondi has made at least 129 appearances on cable news, all of which have been on Fox.
    • Robert Ray has appeared at least 120 times on cable news. He’s been on Fox News 81 times, CNN 33 times, and MSNBC six times. 
    • Jay Sekulow has had at least 76 appearances on cable news, with 61 of those appearances happening on Fox. He’s been on CNN nine times and MSNBC six times. 

    The other members of Trump’s legal team haven’t made appearances on cable news. 

    Trump’s House advisers, too, have appeared on Fox News programming more than on other networks. Here's the breakdown of appearances by Trump's House advisers on weekday cable news: 

    • Rep. Jim Jordan has had at least 245 appearances, with 212 of them occurring on Fox News. He’s been on CNN and MSNBC 19 and 14 times respectively. 
    • Rep. Mark Meadows has had 147 cable news appearances, with 121 of them happening on Fox News. He’s been on CNN 10 times and MSNBC 16 times. 
    • Rep. Lee Zeldin has had 143 cable news appearances. He’s been on Fox News 103 times, CNN 26 times, and MSNBC 14 times. 
    • Rep. Doug Collins has had at least 127 cable news appearances, with all but six of them on Fox News. Collins appeared 121 times on Fox, didn’t go on CNN, and went on MSNBC just six times. 
    • Rep. John Ratcliff has had 64 appearances, with 63 on Fox and one on CNN.
    • Rep. Mike Johnson has been on cable news 26 times. He’s appeared on Fox 14 times, CNN 10 times, and MSNBC two times. 
    • Rep. Debbie Lesko has 18 cable news appearances, all of them on Fox News. 
    • Rep. Elise Stefanik has appeared on cable news six times, each time on Fox.