Fox News' Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson
distance themselves from Trump
Rush Limbaugh also distances himself from president’s
efforts to overturn his election defeat by Joe Biden
Martin
Pengelly in New York
@MartinPengelly
Tue 24 Nov
2020 15.20 GMT
Donald
Trump continued to gravitate towards his new rightwing media allies at TV
channels One America Network and Newsmax on Tuesday, even as heavyweight
supporters Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson and Rush Limbaugh distanced
themselves from the president’s attempts to overturn his election defeat by Joe
Biden.
On Fox News
on Monday, Ingraham said: “Unless the legal situation changes in a dramatic and
unlikely manner, Joe Biden will be inaugurated on 20 January.”
Carlson
claimed “the 2020 election was not fair”, but admitted Trump had lost it.
On his
radio show, Limbaugh attacked Trump’s lawyers in Pennsylvania, led by Rudy
Giuliani, for failing to provide any evidence to back claims of voter fraud in
the state.
“You
announce massive bombshells,” he said, “then you better have some bombshells.”
On Tuesday
morning, Trump pinned Carlson’s monologue to his Twitter page. But he also
retweeted a string of messages by Randy Quaid. In one, the actor echoed Carlson’s
claims about trust in election infrastructure, demanding “an
in-person-only-paper ballot re-vote”.
“Are you
listening, Republicans?” Trump tweeted.
But in
another message, shot in extreme close-up and flashing light and spoken in
bizarrely hammy tones, Quaid quoted an old Trump tweet: “Fox News daytime
ratings have completely collapsed. Weekend daytime, even worse. Very sad to
watch this happen.
“But they
forgot … they forgot what made them successful. What got them there. They
forgot the golden goose. The only difference between the 2016 election and 2020
is Fox News.”
Trump has
made many such claims about Fox News’ failings. Fox News has disputed his
claims about ratings. On Tuesday, a spokeswoman did not immediately respond to
a request for comment.
One America
News and Newsmax are devoted to supporting Trump. With a move into television
among Trump’s possible post-White House plans, both are increasingly under the
spotlight.
Newsmax has
enjoyed ratings growth and mainstream attention, including a Wall Street
Journal report which said Trump allies had considered a buyout.
OAN remains
a fringe operator but on Monday, the Daily Beast reported that one host,
Christina Bobb, had been working on the Trump team’s legal challenges.
“Christina
is an attorney and has helped with some legal work in her personal capacity and
not on behalf of OAN,” Jenna Ellis, a Trump adviser, told the Beast.
Ellis made
her own headlines on Monday. Speaking to MSNBC, she said: “President Trump won
by a landslide.”
“Take a pause,”
host Ari Melber interjected. “If you make false statements, you don’t run
roughshod. You made a false accusation.”
Trump lost
Georgia by around 12,000 votes, Pennsylvania by around 80,000 and Michigan by
more than 150,000. Biden won the national popular vote by 6m and the electoral
college by 306-232. On Monday, Trump allowed the transition to proceed but
continued to make baseless claims of fraud and insist he would be proved the
winner.
Trump is
certainly suffering one landslide defeat: in election-related lawsuits.
According to the Democratic elections lawyer Marc Elias, the president has won
one such case – and lost 35.
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