NEW YORK —

The two leading GOP presidential contenders had very different interview experiences with Fox News in the past week — each an illustration of the influence that even a damaged Fox has over the Republican nominating process.

Donald Trump’s interview with Bret Baier, which aired in two parts Monday and Tuesday, was meaty and newsworthy. Baier pressed the former president about his indictment on hoarding confidential documents and pushed back on Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election.

Ron DeSantis’ session with Trump’s former press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, on Wednesday was far softer.

Their appearances alone are evidence that Fox, weakened financially by the $787 million settlement over defamation charges reached with Dominion Voting Systems and suffering in the ratings following Tucker Carlson’s firing, remains the media kingmaker for Republicans who want to be president.

After the first part of his Trump interview aired, Fox announced that Baier and Martha MacCallum will moderate the first Republican presidential primary debate on Aug. 23.

Baier, in bringing up the documents charges with Trump, asked him simply: “Why not just hand them over?”

When the former president talked about being busy, Baier brought up the indictment’s charge that he told an aide to move documents to other locations in his Mar-a-Lago estate after telling lawyers to say he had fully complied with a subpoena, “when you hadn’t.”

He was specific in asking about a recording where...

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