SEC Network host Paul Finebaum revealed in a new interview that ESPN “killed” a planned interview with President Donald Trump in 2019.
Finebaum told Outkick’s Clay Travis, in an interview set to be released in full on Tuesday, and it was supposed to happen the week of the 2019 college football game between LSU and Alabama.
The college football talk show host explained that because of the magnitude of the game and the fact that “College GameDay” would be on site compelled his show’s producer to tell Finebaum that they needed to “do something big.”
That led Finebaum to reach out to a friend in Washington D.C. and that person helped get the ball rolling on a potential interview with the president, who was in the middle of his first term.
Finebaum said the interview had been expected to take place at the White House that Thursday morning, but when he told his bosses the plan, they shut him down.
“I called my boss, and they killed it,” Finebaum solemnly told Travis. “I was devastated. They told me that we’re not allowed to mix politics with football.”
Trump was planning on attending the LSU-Alabama game that year, which he did, and Finebaum said that the motivation for the interview had nothing to do with politics.
“It was just about the idea of going to the White House to interview the President of the United States,” he said. “And it wasn’t about politics, it was about, you’re coming to a football game. The biggest game of the year in college football, and I never exactly knew where the kill button came from, but it didn’t happen.
The interview was already making headlines on Monday when a clip was released of Finebaum saying that he is “considering” leaving ESPN, which owns SEC Network, to run for Senate in Alabama on the Republican ticket.
Finebaum revealed that he is a registered Republican and that he voted for Trump previously, while also saying that “one or two” people down in Washington had “reached out” to determine his interest in politics.
The SEC Network host also said that the assassination of Charlie Kirk had fueled his desire to get involved.