Fox News cut away from airing a briefing by the Trump campaign on Monday, claiming that White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany failed to provide evidence when she claimed that the Democratic party is inviting voter fraud.
“Whoa, whoa, I think we need to be very clear, she’s charging the other side of welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting,” Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto said when the station cut the briefing short.
“Unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good countenance continue showing you this. I want to make sure—maybe they do have something to back that up—but that’s an explosive charge to make, that the other side is effectively rigging and cheating. If she does bring proof of that, of course, we‘ll take you back. So far, she had started saying right at the outset, ’welcoming fraud, welcoming illegal voting.' Not so fast,” Cavuto added before cutting to commercials.
Before Fox News tuned out of the briefing, McEnany was explaining why the 2020 election is far from over. She eventually switched to the issue of recent voter fraud allegations and ran through a long list of election integrity safeguards Democrats have fought to remove in virtually every state.
“[There is only] one party in America that opposed verifying signatures, citizenship, residency, eligibility. There is only one party in America trying to keep observers out of the count room. And that party, my friends, is the Democrat party,” McEnany said.
“You don’t take these positions because you want an honest election. You don’t oppose an audit of the vote because you want an accurate count. You don’t oppose our efforts at sunlight and transparency because you have nothing to hide. You take these positions because you are welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting,” she continued.
“We want maximum sunlight. We want maximum transparency. We want every legal vote to be counted and we want every illegal vote—” McEnany said before Cavuto cut the feed.
Fox News did not respond to a request for comment.
Fox News was widely criticized on the night of the election when it declared former Vice President Joe Biden the winner in Arizona. Some race callers, including Decision Desk HQ, have not yet projected a winner for Arizona as of 10:45 p.m. on Nov 9. President Donald Trump has steadily closed the gap with Biden with every recent batch of votes. If the president continues at the same pace, he would win the state once all the votes are counted.
Fox News followed along with every legacy news outlet to declare Biden the winner of the election before any state certified the final results. The Trump campaign has mounted legal challenges in Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Michigan, while recounts are pending in Georgia and Wisconsin.
