Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes are stars of an outdated conservative brand, and they think they have had enough.

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Tucker Carlson’s special trailer for the Capitol mob on January 6 went live on October 27, and that night Jonah Goldberg sent a text message to his business partner Stephen Hayes: “I’d love to Leaving Fox because of this."

"I am a game," Mr. Hayes replied. "It's outrageous. It leads to violence. I don't know how we can stay."

A few days later, a complete special program "Patriot Clearance" appeared on Fox's online subscription streaming service. Last week, both men paid Fox News writers to complete their resignation from the network.

In some respects, their departure should not be surprising: this is only part of the new right's sweep of the corners of conservative institutions that still have some resistance to Donald J. Trump’s control of the Republican Party. The former "National Review" writer Mr. Goldberg and the former "Standard Weekly" writer Mr. Hayes are the stars of Trump's former conservative movement. They made their position clear when they founded The Dispatch in 2019, describing online publications as "a place where thoughtful readers can come and read conservative news and commentary based on facts." It now has nearly 30,000 paying users.

Their departure also marked the end of the lingering hopes of some people on Fox News-which strange to outsiders understand-that the channel will return to the reality before Trump at some point. Often ultra-partisan, but kept a certain distance from Republican officials. Rupert Murdoch, Fox’s chairman, recently condemned Trumpism while acting as if—as Bloomberg’s Tim O’Brien pointed out—he did not manage the company.

The reality of Fox and similar institutions is that many of their leaders believe that Mr. Trump’s close ties with their audience or voters leave them no choice but to go with the flow, no matter what they believe. Fox employees often use "respect for the audience" to talk about this. In an era of polarization, the greatest opportunities for ratings, money, and attention, as shown by politicians and media on the left and right, are all on the edge of American politics.

Mr. Carlson became the network’s most high-profile primetime host by explicitly broadcasting to that edge, and "Patriot Purge"-through hints and images-explored another piece of history on January 6th, where violence It was a "false flag" and the result was persecution of conservatives.

Mr. Goldberg said that he and Mr. Hayes have stayed on Fox News because it can be seen from Fox’s conversation that after Mr. Trump’s failure, the network will try to restore some of its independence, as he said It, "the right boat."

"Patriot Purge" is "a sign that people have compromised in this direction, at least, no one made me aware of the route correction plan," Mr. Goldberg said.

"Rightening this ship is now an academic issue," he continued. "The'Patriot Purge' thing means: Well, we are now hitting an iceberg, and I can no longer rationalize."

Mr. Hayes, 51, and Mr. Goldberg, 52, spoke to me via video at their home in Washington, D.C. They both wear casual sportswear and have gray beards. When they joined Fox News in 2009, they were the main ideological participants in the radically different conservative movement of the Bush era. Mr. Hayes had supported the invasion of Iraq in Standard Weekly, and Mr. Goldberg had just published a book called "Free Fascism."

They now find that they belong to a group of Americans who believe that Mr. Trump poses more threats to American democracy than many other political differences. Mr. Hayes said he was particularly worried that Fox would support the idea that “the war on terrorism is underway in the country and that this war will sweep half of the country”, he said. "It's not true." He added that what is particularly disturbing in the "Patriot Purge" is the image of waterboarding and the suggestion that half of the country will receive this treatment, which is in contrast to the federal government's use in hunting down Al. The treatment is the same. Al-Qaeda. "

Mr. Carlson "to push these things to society, and all you need is that one out of every 50,000 people who watched it believes that it is indeed a story about what happened, and all its details and all its hints are true. In a sense, this is indeed dangerous, and you usually make exaggerated statements in a lot of cable news."

Mr. Hayes said that recently, when a man asked its leader at a meeting of the pro-Trump organization Turning Point USA, he was particularly disturbed: "When can we use guns?"

"It was a terrible moment," Mr. Hayes said. "And I think we better let those who at least won't publish things that would encourage this kind of thing."

Mr. Goldberg said he has been considering the late founder of the National Review, William F. Barkley, who believes he "takes conservative arguments seriously" and eliminates some extreme marginal groups, including John Birch society, from the right.

A critical issue that has not been tested. The power of Donald Trump as the former president to retain confidential information of the White House has become the core issue of the House of Representatives investigation into the congressional riots on January 6. In the allegations of Mr. Trump's attempts to keep personal records confidential and Stephen K. Bannon's contempt for Congress, the following is a breakdown of executive privileges:

What is administrative privilege? This is a power claimed by the President under the Constitution to prevent the other two government departments from obtaining information from certain internal administrative departments, especially those involving confidential communications between the President or his senior aides.

What is Trump's proposition? Former President Trump has filed a lawsuit to try to prevent the White House from disclosing documents related to his actions and communications in the Capitol riots on January 6. He believes that as a matter of administrative privileges, these issues must be kept secret.

Are Trump's privilege requirements valid? The constitutional boundary between the president’s right to secrecy and congressional investigative power is blurred. Although a judge rejected Mr. Trump’s request to keep his documents confidential, it is likely that the case will eventually be resolved by the Supreme Court.

Is administrative privilege absolute power? Can not. Even legal claims of administrative privileges do not necessarily prevail in the courts. During the Watergate scandal in 1974, the Supreme Court upheld an order requiring President Richard Nixon to surrender his recordings in the Oval Office.

Can the former president invoke executive privileges? Yes, but the court may disrespect their claims more than the current president. In 1977, the Supreme Court stated that even if Nixon was not in the office, he could still request administrative privileges, even though the court ultimately ruled against him in the case.

Does Steve Bannon enjoy administrative privileges? This is unclear. Mr. Bannon’s case may raise a new legal question as to whether or to what extent the claims of administrative privilege can be extended to the communication between the president and informal advisers outside the government.

What is contempt of Congress? This is a sanction against those who ignore congressional subpoenas. Congress can submit contempt charges to the Justice Department and request criminal charges. Mr. Bannon was charged with contempt of court for refusing to comply with a subpoena for documents and testimony.

"Whether it's'Patriot Cleansing' or anti-vaccine stuff, I don't want to be in my name, I want to speak out and criticize it," Mr. Goldberg said. "I don't want to feel that I have betrayed my trust as a Fox News contributor. And I don't want to be accused of not really attacking. Then it's just an unsustainable tension for me."

Now, their views have divorced them from the current Republican mainstream, or at least from what mainstream right-wing institutions and politicians are willing to say aloud. However, although the two have occasionally appeared in the evening shows "Special Report" and "Fox Sunday News" (the network classifies them as news) in recent years, they have not been popular during Fox prime time for several years. Mr. Goldberg had a fierce conflict with them. Sean Hannity, primetime host in 2016. (Mr. Hayes and Mr. Goldberg emailed their readers on Sunday announcing their departure.)

Despite the hope of the former writer, Fox's program production and personnel changes have followed Trump's line. For example, the network fired senior political editors who accurately predicted Mr. Biden’s victory in key Arizona states on election night, and hired former Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

Mr. Hayes and Mr. Goldberg were the first Fox employees to resign due to the "Patriot Purge", but others also expressed their dissatisfaction. Geraldo Rivera, who has been a Fox News reporter since 2001, expressed his cautious criticism of Mr. Carlson and the "Patriot Purge" to my colleague Michael Grynbaum , Caught the difficulty of internal dissent within the network. "I'm worried—and I might get into trouble for it—but I want to know how much I have done to provoke rather than illuminate," he said.

At the time of the broadcast, two programs with fewer viewers than Mr. Carlson scrambled to refute the false theory put forward in the "Patriot Purge" after his special program. "Special Report" summoned a former CIA official on October 29 to debunk the "false flag" theory. In the "Fox Sunday News" program, Chris Wallace referred the same question to one of Trump's few enemies in the Republican Congressional delegation, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

In a telephone interview on Sunday, Carlson called the resignations of Hayes and Goldberg "good news." "Our audience will be very grateful."

Fox News spokesperson Irena Briganti declined to comment on the resignation, but the data sent showed that independents are following Fox.

However, resignations like Mr. Hayes and Mr. Goldberg are still rare in Fox. The work of cable copywriters is lucrative—usually six figures or more—and opens the door to booking deals and speaking events. Senior Fox reporters and filmmakers usually get extra pay for being blamed for working in companies in New York, Washington, or Los Angeles. This means that it is difficult to leave without a significant pay cut.

"There are a lot of people I respect, like and consider friends. They are making decisions based on how to support their families and deal with their careers. I will not make a second guess about them," Mr. Goldberg said. "And there are many people over there who think Fox has a great view today."

On January 6, 2021, a group of pro-Trump mobs attacked the Capitol.