U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee drew mockery on X after his tribute to departing Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo referred to her as "him/her", a gaffe he blamed on a bumpy car ride.
Fox News announced Thursday that it was parting ways with Bartiromo, the longtime host of Mornings with Maria on Fox Business Network. The network released the news just hours after airing what turned out to be the final episode of her morning show, closing out a tenure that spanned more than twelve years.
Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, took to X to praise Bartiromo. The post called her "the smartest hardest working journalist & absolutely class act." Then came the line that set off the pile-on.
"It was an honor to work with him/ her and later to be guest on a show always worth watching."
The "him/her" construction, sitting in a tribute to one of the most recognizable women in cable news, landed like a misfire from a template or an autocorrect gone sideways. X users did not let it slide.
One user wrote: "Him/Her? How much of an honor could it have been if you're uncertain about Maria's gender?" Another took a sharper tone: "WTF is up with the pronouns? Someone needs their sorry a** fired. Was/Were." A third speculated the post was a canned template and Huckabee simply forgot to delete "him" before hitting send. A fourth offered a two-word diagnosis: "Must have used ChatGPT."
About an hour and a half later, Huckabee posted a follow-up.
"Thanks for catching the 'him/her' line! I was typing while riding in vehicle on bumpy street--but have NO idea how that came out! Aside from my clumsy typo mistake, I still love @MariaBartiromo & will always have total respect for HER. Just HER, no 'him' involved!"
A bumpy road is a forgivable excuse for a stray letter. It is a harder sell for inserting an entire slash-separated pronoun pair that reads like a fill-in-the-blank placeholder. Whether the error came from autocorrect, a pre-drafted template, or sheer haste, Huckabee owned it and moved on. Most replies after the correction appeared to accept his explanation.
The network's official statement was brief: "We thank Maria for her work over the last 12½ years and wish her all the best on her next chapter." Fox did not publicly explain why it was parting ways with Bartiromo. The announcement came suddenly, with no advance notice to viewers.
Both of Bartiromo's shows will be renamed. Mornings with Maria becomes Mornings with Fox Business, and Maria Bartiromo's Wall Street becomes FBN's Wall Street. Fox said a rotating cast of anchors would fill the slots for the foreseeable future.
As of Thursday evening, Bartiromo had not publicly addressed her departure. Her X bio still listed her as anchor on Mornings with Maria.
Bartiromo was a central figure in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against Fox News, a case Fox settled for $787.5 million. She is also named in a separate, ongoing $2.7 billion defamation suit filed by Smartmatic, a voting equipment company. Both lawsuits centered on claims about the 2020 election that aired on Fox programming.
Fox did not cite either lawsuit in connection with Thursday's announcement. But the legal backdrop is impossible to ignore. Bartiromo promoted claims of voter fraud on her programs, and those broadcasts became exhibits in litigation that cost the network nearly $800 million in the Dominion settlement alone, with the Smartmatic case still unresolved.
Vice President JD Vance, asked Thursday about Bartiromo's departure, offered warm words.
"I love Maria. I think she's an amazing person, an amazing talent. Whatever she does, she's gonna do great, and I wish her all the best. She's a very, very dear friend."
President Donald Trump has called Bartiromo "a great reporter," though the date and context of that remark were not specified.
Neither Trump nor Vance addressed the circumstances behind the split. The White House comments suggest Bartiromo leaves Fox with significant goodwill from the administration, whatever prompted the network's decision.
Fox gave no reason beyond its boilerplate statement. Bartiromo said nothing publicly. The network moved to scrub her name from both show titles within hours. That sequence, final episode in the morning, announcement by afternoon, rebranding already in motion, suggests a decision that was made well before Thursday, even if viewers learned about it only after the fact.
Whether the departure is connected to the Smartmatic litigation, a contract dispute, or something else entirely remains unknown. Fox has not said, and Bartiromo has not spoken.
Huckabee's typo will fade by the weekend. The real question, why Fox cut loose one of its most prominent anchors with a single sentence and no explanation, deserves an answer that viewers have not yet received.
