During an interview with former White House adviser Steve Bannon on Saturday, former President Donald Trump took a shot at Fox News, suggesting that he couldn’t talk about “cheating” in elections on the network. Trump repeated unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him and also criticized Fox News, which recently reached a $785.7 million settlement with voting machine company Dominion, which had accused the network of defamation.
Trump’s comments came after Fox News parted ways with longtime host Tucker Carlson, a decision that has been widely criticized by conservatives. Bannon served as White House chief strategist for the first seven months of Trump’s term, and the two reminisced about the 2016 election during the interview. Trump claimed that the Justice Department and the FBI had been weaponized and were doing things that a Communist or Marxist country would do.
Trump also accused Fox of cheating on elections, saying that if he were to say that on the network, they would want to cut him out. Rupert Murdoch, chairman of Fox Corp., testified under oath that the 2020 presidential election was “not stolen” and agreed that the election had been “free and fair.” Murdoch’s testimony came as part of Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News. The voting machine company alleged that Fox had harmed its businesses by spreading false claims about its machines helping to rig the 2020 election in favor of President Joe Biden. Fox reached a last-minute settlement with Dominion, and an impending trial on the matter did not take place.
What’s going on is sick,” Trump said. “And what they do is they’re unbelievable at cheating on elections. With you, I don’t have to worry about saying that because, you know, if you say that on Fox, they want to cut you out.
They cheated on elections,” Trump went on. “Had Rupert Murdoch backed his people, he wouldn’t have had any liability. When he went out and said ‘There was nothing wrong with this election’ – what a thing to say.”
