(John Ransom, Headline USA) Liberal political consultant Bob Beckel, a former co-host of Fox News’s popular primetime show The Five, has died at the age of 73 from unspecified causes.
“The passing of the man who ran Walter Mondale’s unsuccessful 1984 presidential campaign was revealed by old friend Cal Thomas on social media Monday evening,” reported Deadline.
My friend and spiritual brother, Bob Beckel, has passed into the presence of the Lord he loved. We did so many things together and I hope we modeled what two people of different political persuasions can be like when they love one another.
— Cal Thomas (@CalThom54499006) February 22, 2022
Beckel became a mainstay in cable news after overseeing Mondale’s crushing defeat to Ronald Reagan, hosting on CNN during the Clinton administration, and later joining Fox News before becoming a founding member of The Five in 2011.
Beckel, who was candid about his past substance-abuse issues, was fired by Fox in 2015 after reportedly suffering issues related to a back surgery.
“Initially, the network described the split as amicable, but within hours then-executive Bill Shine released a new statement lambasting Beckel for having taken ‘tremendous advantage of our generosity, empathy, and goodwill,’” the leftist Daily Beast wrote in 2017.
Despite stuggling with addiction to alcohol and cocaine, Beckel proudly claimed to have achieved sobriety in his 2015 best-selling book I Should Be Dead: My Life Surviving Politics, TV, and Addiction.
Beckel briefly made a comeback at The Five before being fired for allegedly making an insensitive remark to a black employee at Fox.
Fox host Sean Hannity announced the death of his “dear friend” Beckel on his primetime show Monday.
“What people might not know is he and I got along great,” said Hannity, according to the Daily Mail.
“He had a key to my house, he was always full of joy, happiness, light, sunshine. He loved God and Jesus and we miss him already.”
Fox News host Laura Ingraham echoed the sentiments.
“That’s really sad news,” Ingraham told Hannity. “I liked him so much too. I’m just in shock, I’m just learning this from you.”
“He was an old time liberal who you could fight with,” Ingraham added, “and you and I fought with him many times over the 20 plus years but we always had a laugh afterward.”