Watch CNN's Jake Tapper explain Fox News' responsibility in spreading the election lies that led to Donald Trump's indictment
Published
Citation From the August 2, 2023, edition of CNN's The Lead with Jake Tapper
DAVID CHALIAN (GUEST): Brad Raffensperger is just one of a slew of government officials that Jack Smith cites in the indictment, explaining to Donald Trump that he actually did not win the election, which is why Smith goes onto say that he knowingly made these false comments and then acted on them in this conspiratorial way.
JAKE TAPPER (HOST): And why did they believe it? Yes, Donald Trump is lying about it. And yes, other Republican officials are lying about it, but also, there is this Fox and MAGA media echo chamber that continues to share these lies.
Let us remind our viewers, Fox had to pay nearly $800 million in a settlement with Dominion Voting Systems for spreading lies about the 2020 election being rigged. Nonetheless, this is Fox responding to the Trump indictment. Take a listen.
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Well, aside from not really understanding the point of Oppenheimer, what would your response be to that?
CHALIAN: So, I'm not a media critic. I'll leave that aside, but I do think politically you are right to note the echo chamber. I have little doubt that we will hear some Republicans, whether on Capitol Hill or maybe on the presidential campaign trail, start echoing some of the points that you just heard there.
And I don't understand the last point made there, do we have to go back and find fraud? Either there's an acknowledgment that no fraud was found so now he's going to be on a mission to go find fraud. And we know that there is no determinative election outcome determinative of fraud that was a part of the 2020 election.
TAPPER: According to Republican election officials, governors, secretaries of state, judges and on and on. Alice, how does the country fix this if Fox is not going to be part of the solution?
ALICE STEWART (GUEST): Well, Fox viewers believe what Fox is saying. Fox viewers believe what Donald Trump is saying, that there was widespread election fraud, and Donald Trump certainly -- they believe he won the election. And Fox is going to continue to feed that narrative because that is certainly what's worked for them.
The question is what about -- what happens with Republicans after the primary? What happens if Donald Trump is elected and we need to appeal to independent voters or the disaffected Republican voters who actually believe correctly that we do have a fair and accurate voting system and every vote is important? What happens -- how do we make that case to them? That's where they're going to really face a challenge in appealing to the independent voters who are not sitting there glued to Fox every day and believing all the nonsense that they're spreading.