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By Kanishka Singh
(Reuters) - Lou Dobbs, a former Fox Business and CNN host who was a vocal supporter of Republican former President Donald Trump, has died at the age of 78, his friends and a statement posted on his social media account said on Thursday.
"The Great Lou Dobbs has just passed away," Republican presidential candidate Trump said on his Truth Social platform. He added: "Lou was unique in so many ways, and loved our Country."
The cause and place of his death were not disclosed in the statements.
The Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning journalist joined CNN at its inception in 1980 and held several positions at the cable network, including anchor of "Lou Dobbs Moneyline" and "Lou Dobbs Tonight."
Fox News Media, in a statement after his death, called him "an incredible business mind with a gift for broadcasting, (who) helped pioneer cable news into a successful and influential industry."
Harvard-educated Dobbs became one of the most divisive figures in U.S. broadcast journalism and over the years drew ire from Latino leaders and civil rights groups for frequent on-air remarks about U.S. border control and immigration that critics saw as demonizing undocumented immigrants.
He was also seen as lending credence to the "birther" conspiracy theory, whose adherents believed that former President Barack Obama's Hawaiian birth certificate was faked to hide a Kenyan birthplace that would have made the first black U.S. president ineligible for his office.
Dobbs acknowledged his commentary also stirred friction with CNN executives.
He joined the Fox Business Network in 2010 after leaving CNN in 2009.
A weekday show he hosted on Fox Business was canceled in 2021 after the vocal supporter of Trump was named as a defendant in a defamation lawsuit filed by voting machine maker Smartmatic, which argued that three Fox hosts, including Dobbs, falsely accused the company of helping to rig the 2020 election against Trump.
Trump, who lost in 2020 to Democratic President Joe Biden with whom he is due to have a rematch in the 2024 elections, falsely claimed the 2020 elections were rigged.
(This story has been corrected to fix the day to Thursday, not Friday, in paragraph 1)
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Stephen Coates)
