What happened to Fox News host Lawrence Jones?

Fox News Media has been a revolving door in for its anchors and their controversies, with the conservative news channel regularly generating embarrassing headlines of its own.

Over the past few years, Fox News has been forced to pay out $787.5 million after defaming Dominion voting Systems, been embroiled in a nude photo scandal involving one of its anchors, and has a long history of sexual harassment lawsuits brought by female employees.

Now, Fox News seems poised to usher in a new era, this time involving longtime reporter Lawrence Jones. So what exactly happened to Lawrence Jones, and how might it affect Fox News?

Is Lawrence Jones joining FOX & Friends?

Fox News announced in September 2023 that Lawrence Jones would be joining the FOX & Friends chat show as an official co-host. The promotion made Jones — who first joined Fox News in 2018 — the youngest Black co-host in cable news, and came after his years-long stint on Fox & Friends as an enterprise reporter. 

At the time, Gavin Hadden, senior vice president of morning programming for Fox News, said that Jones “has his finger on the pulse of what matters to communities” and described Jones’ reporting as “invaluable to the Fox & Friends audience.” For his part, Jones — who joined the team alongside co-hosts Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, and Brian Kilmeade — said he was “honored to become a part of [Fox’s] cable news legacy.” 

Jones’ stint on FOX & Friends has seen him interview presidential candidates Tim Scott, Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Christie, and Asa Hutchinson, as well as former President Trump and his current running mate, JD Vance. 

Jones has remained in that co-host position on FOX & Friends ever since, though his tenure on the chat show hasn’t been without controversy. In July 2022, Jones was one of multiple figures on the right to peddle the conspiracy that connected Joe Biden’s exit from the presidential race to a supposed fatal illness or death, saying that the President “clearly didn’t write” his withdrawal letter and questioning why “we still have not seen Joe Biden.” 

Jones has been vocal of his opposition to Biden in the past, describing the president as being in “high school” in comparison to Trump being “in the NFL”, and criticizing Biden’s “divisive racial rhetoric.” More recently, Jones said the ascension of Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee will result in the “most racialized presidential campaign in American history.” 

After a brief vacation, Jones will return to FOX & Friends as a co-host on August 7, 2024.