Sarah Huckabee Sanders to join Fox News as a contributor

Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will join Fox News as a contributor from September, reinforcing the strong ties between the conservative cable network and the Trump administration.

It has been less than two months since Sanders left the administration. She will make her debut on September 6 on "Fox & Friends", the network said in a statement.

She will provide political commentary and analysis across Fox properties, including Fox News and Fox Business Network as well as digital and radio outlets, in her new role, reports The New York Times. 

Sanders is among nearly two dozen people who hold or have held positions both in the Trump administration and at Fox News. The others include Bill Shine, the former deputy White House chief of staff and former co-president of Fox News; Heather Nauert, a former Fox News anchor and former undersecretary of state; and Hope Hicks, President Trump’s former communications director, who is now the chief communications officer at Fox Corp.

From White House spokesperson to television news - the path is well-worn by now. George Stephanopoulos joined ABC News after working in the administration of President Bill Clinton, for example, and Jay Carney joined CNN after leaving the Obama administration.

As press secretary, Sanders became one of the most recognizable faces of the administration. She was known for her confrontations with White House reporters, a style that endeared her to Trump.

“We've been through a lot together. She’s tough and she’s good,” the president said after announcing her departure in June. “She’s a warrior,” he added, kissing her affectionately on the side of the head.

Sanders also ended decades of tradition by effectively killing the daily briefing from the White House lectern.

In April, it was revealed in the report of the special counsel Robert S Mueller III that Sanders had acknowledged delivering a false statement from the White House podium when she said in 2017 that she had personally heard from “countless” FBI officials who said they were happy with Trump’s decision to fire James B Comey, then the director of the agency. Sanders later described that false statement as a “slip of the tongue.”

Before joining the White House, Sanders, the daughter of the former Arkansas governor and Fox News host Mike Huckabee, had worked in a variety of roles in Republican politics.