Fox News Fact-Checks Trump’s Election Lies During Campaign Speech
Donald Trump‘s former allies at Fox News took an unexpected turn on Saturday as they interrupted the former president’s campaign speech to fact-check his election lies. During back-to-back campaign stops in Iowa, Trump once again claimed that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and even expressed his desire to “redo the election.” He urged his followers in Detroit, Philadelphia, and Atlanta to closely monitor the votes in the 2024 election. Fox News, however, took notice of these baseless claims and decided to set the record straight.
Host Arthel Neville addressed the issue on air, stating, “Well, the former president finally got around to some campaign promises amid lots of cheering as you heard. Many untruths, the 2020 election was not rigged, it was not stolen.” This live fact-checking moment could potentially mark a turning point for Fox News, which recently settled a historic lawsuit for failing to dispute similar election lies. The network was forced to pay a staggering $787.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems. Additionally, Fox News is currently facing another $2.7 billion lawsuit filed by Smartmatic, a voting machine company that claims it was defamed by the network’s conduct.
This is not the first time Trump and Neville have clashed. In 2019, the former president took to Twitter, urging Neville and fellow hosts Leland Vittert and Shepard Smith to leave Fox News in favor of CNN. Despite their past differences, Neville and Fox News took a stand against Trump’s election lies and misinformation.
During the same campaign tour, Trump made additional controversial statements. He claimed that he invented the term “caravan” and, in a truly audacious move, declared that he was chosen by God in the 2020 election. “I think if you had a real election and Jesus came down and God came down and said, ‘I’m gonna be the scorekeeper here,’ I think we’d win [in California], I think we’d win in Illinois, and I think we’d win in New York,” Trump asserted.
With Fox News fact-checking Trump’s election lies and pushing back against his baseless claims, it remains to be seen how this will affect their relationship moving forward. As the network continues to face legal battles over their coverage of the 2020 election, their decision to challenge Trump’s false narratives could have significant implications for their credibility and reputation.
Original Story at news.yahoo.com – 2023-12-04 15:23:13
