Fox News cut away from a White House press conference in which press secretary Kayleigh McEnany claimed Democrats were “welcoming” voter fraud.
McEnany said she was speaking in her personal capacity, before going on to state that Republicans had “only begun the process of obtaining an accurate, honest vote count.”
She specifically attacked Democrats’ opposition to voter ID laws, verifying signatures and blocking Republican observers from watching ballots be counted.
“You don’t take these positions because you want an honest election,” she said.
Fox News then cut away from their coverage of the conference, and host Neil Cavuto critiqued her lack of evidence in remarks to viewers.
“She is charging that the other side is welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting. Unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good countenance continuing showing you this,” Cavuto said. “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.”
President Donald Trump has refused to concede the presidential election, instead launching a series of lawsuits and promoting rhetoric, like McEnany’s, that calls the integrity of the results into question.
Later in the press conference, the remainder of which was not aired on Fox News, McEnany answered a reporter’s question about whether she knew if illegal votes were cast.
“What we are asking for right now is patience as we explore these equal protection claims among others,” McEnany responded.
There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud and the claims, as well as the lawsuits, are largely seen as a hail Mary effort by the Trump administration to retain power. Fox News’ decision to cut away from the press conference marked a major shift in the network’s coverage of the administration, as it had almost always broadcasted White House news conferences in full.
