Fox News has cut away from a briefing held by the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, during which she repeated Donald Trump’s refusal to accept defeat in the presidential election and doubled down on allegations of voter fraud, for which there is scant if any evidence.
Speaking to media on Monday night in her “personal capacity” during what she said was a campaign event at the Republican National Committee headquarters, McEnany said Republicans want “every legal vote to be counted, and every illegal vote to be discarded”, prompting the conservative Fox News network to stop broadcasting the briefing.
From the studio, host Neil Cavuto said: “Whoa, whoa, whoa – I just think we have to be very clear. She’s charging the other side as welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting. Unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good countenance continue to show you this.”
He added: “I want to make sure that 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 has started saying, right at the outset – ‘welcoming fraud, welcoming illegal voting’. Not so fast.”
The decision to cut away was Cavuto’s, the Washington Post reported, citing people familiar with the show.
Allies to President Donald Trump are exploring the possibility of acquiring and investing in conservative outlet Newsmax to set up a competitor to the Fox News Channel, the Wall Street Journal reported.
There are ongoing discussions between Newsmax and Hicks Equity Partners, an investment firm connected to the Republican National Committee, according to the Journal. The deal would include a video-streaming service.
Media pundits believe regular Fox News viewers have been navigating over to Newsmax after the network declared Biden was the winner.
