On election night a crisis broke out on the air at Fox News.
No one saw this coming.
And now Donald Trump has this big problem with Fox News after what it did on election night.
At approximately 11:30PM on election night,Fox News called Arizona and its 11 Electoral College votes for Joe Biden.
This was the first state to flip from red to blue and it blunted the momentum the President gained as the votes came in and the President led in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Iowa, Ohio and Texas – states the President needed to win to recreate the surprised 2016 victory.
No other network called Arizona and there were still hundreds of thousands of votes outstanding.
Trump campaign advisors furiously contested Fox’s decision.
The registered Democrat named Arnon Mishkin that runs Fox News Channel’s Decision Desk defended the decision.
“I’m sorry,” Mishkin told anchor Bret Baier, “the president is not going to be able to take over and win enough votes to eliminate that seven-point lead that the former vice president has.” Told the White House was convinced otherwise, he stood his ground: “I’m sorry we’re not wrong in this particular case.”
The next day, a New York Times article explained why Fox News called Arizona when it did.
“Mr. Trump and his advisers erupted at the news. If it was true that Arizona was lost, it would call into doubt on any claim of victory the president might be able to make,” The New York Times reported.
Fox News and other networks would not call states like Florida or Texas despite the obvious fact that the numbers showed President Trump would carry those Electoral College rich vote states.
That way it would appear to Americans that Donald Trump had no path to victory and if the President addressed the nation on election night, Trump would look like a Third World tyrant claiming victory and counting on the machinery of government to keep him in power.
Fox calling Arizona for Biden took the heat off other fake news networks by preventing Trump and his supporters from claiming the “liberal media” was meddling in the election and running interference on behalf of Joe Biden.
The Trump campaign continued to push back on Fox’s decision on the day following the election.
Trump campaign senior advisor Jason Miller blasted Fox News for calling Arizona saying, “We call on both Fox News and the Associated Press to immediately withdraw their calling the state for Joe Biden.”
Arizona’s 11 Electoral College votes are pivotal.
If President Trump carries them it puts him one state away from the Presidency.
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