Former President Donald Trump continues to put Fox News in the awkward position of having to contradict and interrupt him, as Trump continues to insist he won the 2020 presidential election. This weekend Fox host Bret Baier became the second Fox host in a week to try to rein in Trump as he promoted the narrative that the 2020 election was “rigged.”
Trump’s election rant came as a non-sequitur after Baier asked Trump about how he would enhance his appeal to suburban women voters. (“What do you say to that female independent suburban voter who feels that way to win her back?” Baier asks.)
See below, as Baier deflates Trump’s “rigged election” claims and tries to return him to the question at hand.
“Mr. President, that was all looked into — you lost the 2020 election,” Baier says. But Trump doesn’t relent, saying “I won in 2020 by a lot — let’s get that straight.”
Breathtaking to watch Fox News’ Bret Baier repeatedly fact check deranged and befuddled grandpa trump as he tries to spin his election lies and conspiracy theories.
“You lost the 2020 election.”
WOW.pic.twitter.com/Q4DSrdOf7a
— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) February 25, 2024
Last week, during one of Trump’s stump speeches in South Carolina, Fox broadcaster Neal Cavuto presided over the muting of the former president as he went into his customary harangue about the “rigged” election in 2020. Cavuto went further, contradicting Trump’s false claims about the stock market and gas prices also.
Cavuto said: “We’re continuing monitoring the president’s remarks, and I mean no offense to him, some of you might want to continue to hear him, but I did have to say that even though the former president is entitled to his opinions, he’s not entitled to his own set of facts.”
Fox host cuts away from Trump for lying during his rally: Trump is not entitled to his own set of facts. The market has indeed been going up, but it has nothing to do with him pic.twitter.com/kpD2NwGruQ
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) February 23, 2024
Cavuto and Baier explained to the audience that what the former president was claiming about the election is untrue, citing the numerous legal cases — more than 50 — Trump’s lawyers filed, none of which resulted in a finding that any significant fraud had occurred.
Yet recent polls have shown that a majority of Republicans still believe the 2020 election was unfair.
Much of that belief is presumably due to the amplification of the claim by Fox, which before it was against the promotion of Trump’s election falsehoods was for it. (Fox paid $787 million last year to settle a lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems over Fox’s promotion of Trump’s “big lie” about election fraud, which allegedly implicated the company’s voting machines.)
Fox’s more cautious approach to broadcasting Trump’s falsehoods could be the result of a change in the political goals of Fox Corporation, a wish to avoid further financial penalties, or a combination of both. But whatever the reason, the change has been more evident in recent weeks.