Fox News hosts want nothing to do with Trump's voter fraud conspiracies: report
President Donald J. Trump has relied on one network to spread his divisive messages over the past handful of years, but the tide appears to be turning now that a new administration is on the brink of entering the White House in Jan. 2021. Fox News is beginning to push back on "voter fraud" rhetoric by members of the Trump campaign -- and it's happening live.
Trump campaign strategist Harmeet Dhillon went on-air with Fox News' Sandra Smith this weekend to defend her boss' illegitimate actions regarding voter fraud. Unfortunately for Dhillon, Smith was having none of it.
“The point is there's no evidence of that voter fraud or at least widespread evidence of voter fraud,” Fox News' Sandra Smith stated. “There's a new campaign statement that says what this means is counting all legal ballots and not counting any illegal ballots. So you're making the case that you haven't even been provided the opportunity to find evidence of voter fraud. So how do you plan to do that to prove this in court?”
Dhillon argued that evidence was forthcoming with “individual affidavits that are being filed,” prompting Smith to fire back: “Where? Where have you found that?”
“I don't telegraph my legal strategy in advance,” Dhillon responded.
Weekend anchor Eric Shawn took this opportunity to debunk Rudy Giuliani’s accusations and claims by citing local election officials and experts.
“I spoke with several people who do work here as counters—they’ve been counting votes since Tuesday, and they all told me it is impossible to commit fraud and describe strict protocol oversight inside counting rooms,” Shawn said.
“If you put President Trump to the side, the Democrats lost this election, you know, they lost the Senate, we will see what happens in January,” Fox News legal analyst Andrew McCarthy stated. “They lost seats in the House. It's going to be hard for people to swallow the idea that there was a massive fraud scheme if it turns out that, you know, they forgot as part of the scheme to make sure that the Democrats held the Senate, took the Senate and advanced their position in the House. So I just think, you know, it's very uphill.”
McCarthy also noted that the Trump campaign appeared to be retreating in some of their legal positions.
“What it looks like over the next few days, is that either the claims are collapsing or they simply don't have enough extent of fraud that they can actually challenge the margins by which they lost the states,” he observed. “I think then at a certain point it becomes hopeless and, you know, when it becomes hopeless and the president comes to terms with that, if that happens, I think he'll have to concede.”
Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley was one of Trump’s impeachment witnesses, but that didn't prevent him from offering a breakaway opinion from the usually alt-right conglomerate's "voter fraud" stance.
“We haven’t seen that evidence and until we do, they’re hunting elephants with derringers,” Turley said. “We need something with a little more high-caliber if you’re going to take down an election result or determination. So we’re waiting for that evidence to come forward.”
Even pro-Trump loyalist Marc Thiessen said, “The fact that it was so close shows that it was a winnable race and he lost. And the reason I think he lost, if we go back and look at this race, the moment that he lost the race was September 29 in that first debate because there were—the people who decided this race in my view were the reluctant Trump voters.”
Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer is a former George W. Bush White House press secretary. He's been a Trump loyalist for the past four years and said on-air that he believed "in decency in all matters and I think the decent thing to do is let the president take the time he wants to absorb this. It is not easy. It is extraordinarily close. So if the president needs to take a few days or longer to absorb, ultimately accept and I think he ultimately will accept the outcome of the people.”
Viewers and critics can attest that the tone at Fox News has shifted since Election Day in America. An ousting of their fierce leader has left top pundits with little wiggle room, but where they go from here is up to them.
