Donald Trump has accused Fox News of ‘tampering with the election’ because its polls were ‘so inaccurate’ along with those by other networks and newspapers.
The president launched into a series of irate tweets Monday night where he threw the blame for his election defeat onto the media.
He accused several outlets of ‘election interference’ because their polls were ‘so far off’ in several states.
His singling out of Fox in particular, which has long been a close ally of the president, comes after the network and several other Rupert Murdoch-owned conservative outlets have changed their messaging in the days after the election much to Trump’s ire.
Donald Trump has accused Fox News of ‘tampering with the election’ because its polls were ‘so inaccurate’ along with those by other networks and newspapers
The president launched into a series of irate tweets Monday night where he threw the blame for his election defeat onto the TV networks
‘@FoxNews, @QuinnipiacPoll, ABC/WaPo, NBC/WSJ were so inaccurate with their polls on me, that it really is tampering with an Election. They were so far off in their polling, and in their attempt to suppress – that they should be called out for Election Interference,’ Trump blasted.
He pointed to states including Wisconsin and Iowa where he said the media projected he would lose to Joe Biden.
‘ABC/WaPo had me down 17 points in Wisconsin, the day before the election, and I WON! In Iowa, the polls had us 4 points down, and I won by 8.2%! Fox News and Quinnipiac were wrong on everything,’ he wrote.
‘The worst polling ever, and then they’ll be back in four years to do it again. This is much more then voter and campaign finance suppression!’
This marks his latest attack on the media after he fumed about all the networks calling the election for his rival after the Democrat soared ahead in several swing states.
‘Since when does the Lamestream Media call who our next president will be? We have all learned a lot in the last two weeks!’ Trump tweeted Sunday afternoon, around 24 hours after the media called the election for Biden Saturday.
It is also the latest sign of his increasingly fractured relationship with Fox News and Murdoch.
Murdoch and Trump have often rubbed shoulders in the same social circles and the media mogul’s right-wing networks have long sided with Trump.
But when Fox became the first outlet to call Arizona for Biden Tuesday night, Trump reportedly called Murdoch in a fury ‘to scream about the call and demand a retraction’, a source told Vanity Fair.
The 89-year-old media mogul refused to order his staff to retract the Arizona call.
Several of Murdoch’s conservative outlets then changed their messaging as Trump’s chances of reelection slipped away last week, urging him to bow out with grace and all but declaring Biden the winner prior to the crucial state of Pennsylvania being called.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham said Donald Trump should accept ‘the unfavorable outcome’ of the election with ‘grace and composure’ on her show Friday night.
Meanwhile, the front cover of Saturday’s edition of the New York Post – which last month exposed emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop and in October publicly endorsed Trump on its front cover – all but declared Biden’s victory hours before it was called.
The Murdoch empire – in particular Fox – has long been a close ally of the president. Trump and Rupert Murdoch playing golf in 2016
Trump fumed at the media for calling his election defeat Saturday
And the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board penned an opinion piece Friday warning Trump his ‘legacy will be diminished greatly if his final act is a bitter refusal to accept a legitimate defeat.’
Trump has refused to concede and has made numerous unsubstantiated claims of fraud – despite presenting no evidence.
Earlier Monday, he fired off a series of tweets claiming he will prove fraud in several states that tipped the election to his rival.
‘Wisconsin is looking very good. Needs a little time statutorily. Will happen soon!’ he wrote, before adding that Trump said Georgia ‘will be a big presidential win, as it was the night of the Election!’
‘Pennsylvania prevented us from watching much of the Ballot count. Unthinkable and illegal in this country,’ Trump also wrote.
‘Nevada is turning out to be a cesspool of Fake Votes.’
Later, the president retweeted a conspiracy theory shared by One America News’ Chanel Rion, a right-wing network.
Rion recently got tricked by the actress who played Borat’s daughter into giving her a tour of the White House press briefing room.
‘#Developing The #DominionVotingSystems that “glitched” in favor of Joe Biden (and was used in 29 states), partnered up with Clinton Global Initiative and had on staff former employees of both Clinton Growth Initiative and Clinton Cash Cow TENEO,’ Rion tweeted. ‘Full report on @OANN.’
Teneo, a corporate advisory firm, has employed people connected to Clinton, but also individuals linked to Trump, including his senior campaign adviser Jason Miller.
None of the president’s claims have, so far, been backed up by compelling evidence – including at a late afternoon press conference at the Republican National Committee with White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, attending in her personal capacity, and RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel.
This came as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell addressed the Senate Monday afternoon where he also stopped short of calling Biden the victor.
Trump has claimed he will prove fraud in a number of key swing states that handed the election to President-elect Joe Biden
Trump tweeted Monday afternoon that Georgia would slide back into his column. Currently Biden has a lead in the traditionally red state
Trump also tried calling into questions results in Wisconsin, Nevada and Pennsylvania, all states that look like Biden won
‘Obviously, no states have yet certified their election results. We have at least one or two states that are already on track for a recount. And I believe the president may have legal challenges underway in at least five states,’ he said.
‘The core principle here is not complicated. In the United States of America must be counted, any illegal ballots must not be counted,’ he continued. ‘The process should be transparent or observable by all sides and the courts are here to work through concerns.’
He said US institutions are ‘actually built’ for the ongoing scenario.
‘And President Trump is 100 per cent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options,’ McConnell said.
McConnell then sassed at Democratic leaders who have called on Trump to concede.
‘Let’s have any lectures, no lectures about how the president should immediately, cheerfully accept preliminary election results from the same characters who just spent four years refusing to accept the validity of the last election,’ the Kentucky Republican said.
‘And who insinuated that this one would be illegitimate, too, if they lost again,’ McConnell said. ‘Only if they lost.’
He pointed to comments made by Hillary Clinton, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
‘Suffice it to say, a few legal inquiries from the president do not exactly spell the end of the republic,’ McConnell said.
Vice President Mike Pence also broadcast Monday that he is up for Trump’s fight to remain in office despite Biden having seized the lead in the electoral college and won the presidency in a race called by the TV networks.
This marked Pence’s first public announcement that he was backing Trump after he stayed uncharacteristically silent in the days after the election.
Despite the lack of any evidence to substantiate Trump’s claims of election fraud, Attorney General William Barr authorized federal prosecutors across the US to pursue ‘substantial allegations’ of voting irregularities before the 2020 presidential election is certified.
Barr’s action comes days after Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump and raises the prospect that Trump will use the Justice Department to try to challenge the outcome.
It gives prosecutors the ability to go around longstanding Justice Department policy that normally would prohibit such overt actions before the election is formally certified.