Fox News anchor Bret Baier reveals the 'rumor' about why Biden REALLY dropped out of the race... who's taking over in the White House... and issues an ultimatum to his critics

Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier thinks the White House owes his network an apology.

But he won't be holding his breath.

In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, the anchor and executive editor of Special Report with Bret Baier fired back at Democratic critics, who have sought to undermine his reporting on President Joe Biden's record of disturbing public incidents.

And, while Baier is not yet ready to declare a 'White House cover-up' of the president's true condition, he's not ruling it out and he's certainly not done investigating who knew what and when.

'There was clearly an effort to prevent some of what they knew [about Biden's health] from getting out,' Baier told the Mail. 'We're going to find out that there's a lot more to this.'

Baier also questioned who is truly in charge in the White House, as Biden seemingly hands over more influence and power to his Vice President.

'Now that you're going to have Kamala Harris meeting separately with foreign leaders, like we saw with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu [last week] and having her own press conferences,' Baier said, 'we have a situation where President Biden may fade from the spotlight and there could be, in essence, a co-presidency.'

In the 16 years that he's anchored Special Report, taking over from his friend and mentor FNC legend Brit Hume, Baier said that he has never been through such a 'crazy' and 'consequential' period in US politics.

And, he made clear, the story is far from over.

In the days and weeks before Biden shocked the country by appearing frail and confused on a debate stage with Donald Trump, Baier and his FOX News Channel (FNC) colleagues were accused of spreading manipulated videos or 'cheap fakes' of the president.

It's an allegation, Baier argues, that should now be dismissed as patently absurd.

'This wasn't a video that we were editing,' he said. 'This was a video that showed President Biden being led off the stage by former President Obama [at a June 15 fundraiser in Los Angeles]. It was there for viewers to see.'

Yet, many in the mainstream media appeared to go along with the spin.

'Other channels purposely jumped on those [White House] talking points, saying this was all made up and President Biden runs circles around his staff and outworks everybody,' Baier said.

It was only after Hollywood star and Democratic mega-fundraiser George Clooney, a friend of Obama, penned a July 10 New York Times op-ed revealing what he witnessed backstage at the fundraiser that the reality couldn't be hidden any longer.

Clooney wrote: 'It's devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe "big F-ing deal" Biden of 2010. He wasn't even the Joe Biden of 2020.'

'When [Clooney's] article came out, there was no one in the White House or the Biden campaign who reached out [to FNC] and said, "You were right. They weren't cheap fakes. This wasn't made up,"' said Baier, who is well aware that sparing with the powerful is what real journalists do.

It's also part of the reason, Baier believes, that FNC is experiencing an incredible surge in television ratings that rival the heights that the channel reached during the 2020 presidential election.

Viewers - Republican, Democratic and independent - are coming to FNC for the full story, he said. 

During the week of July 15-21, which included the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the Republican National Convention and Biden's decision to drop out of the 2024 race, more viewers tuned into FNC during primetime (between 8.00pm and 11.00pm) than any other broadcast or cable news competitor. 

And FNC's coverage of the final night of the RNC broke the record for the most-watched convention ever.

The other factor driving these historic ratings, said Baier, is the speed and quality of FNC's programming.

'It's a credit to the people that we have here. We've been around this block before on big events,' he said. 'We're able to react and create a show out of thin air.'

In fact, Baier and his team have been called on to do just that.

Baier was changing out of his golf clothes after competing in the annual American Century Celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California on July 13 when he received a news alert that Trump had narrowly survived an attempt on his life at a rally in rural Pennsylvania.

In moments, he was on the phone with sources close to the former president.

Minutes after that, he was speaking to millions of viewers via a phone interview with FNC anchors Shannon Bream and Bill Hemmer, who were helming the breaking news coverage.

He hadn't even left the locker room. That evening he was on a plane to Milwaukee, arriving a day early for the RNC.

A week later, when Biden abruptly announced by tweet that he was stepping down as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Baier was driving to pick up one of his two sons near their home in Washington DC.

'The first thing I'm thinking is: This is going to be a massive story,' he said. 'The second thing I'm thinking is: I've got to get somebody to pick up my son.'

Baier went home for a suit and headed straight for FNC's studio on Capitol Hill. 

FOX News Channel's live coverage of Biden's decision to end his reelection campaign was the most watched programming across all of television, while its cable news competitors were slow to report the bombshell developments.

Now it's an imperative for Baier to determine why, after weeks of resistance and pledges from Biden's inner circle that he would remain in the 2024 race, that the president suddenly decided to end his political career.

'What got [Biden] from adamant that he will be the nominee to writing a letter that he was going to step down? What was that? What epiphany happened' Baier asked.

He has heard rumors that former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was threatening to release polling that undermined Biden's case for staying in the race. 

He also reports that President Obama was exerting his influence behind the scenes to push Biden off the political stage.

And he considers this to be one of the great untold stories of these past few weeks.

'The White House says there are no problems [with the president] and he's still A-Ok. Yet he stepped down from a race that he said he was never going to step down from. And there are still questions about whether he's going to go the whole distance for the five-plus months remaining in the presidency,' Baier said.

'Anything is possible now,' he added.

'I don't sense that the 25th amendment is going to be launched anytime soon,' he told the Mail. 'But that's not to say that there's not some major health incident that changes that dynamic. It's day-to-day.'

That means there are likely to be plenty more shows broadcast from odd locations and sudden changes in plans for the veteran anchor. 

It's something he seems to relish.

'It's a fascinating time in politics. I can't predict what's going to happen, but I can predict that people will tune in,' he said.