WASHINGTON, D.C — Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries Wednesday demanded that right-wing Fox News hosts publicly retract their backing of former President Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen — and tell viewers they’re sorry.
The New York congressional leaders warned Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch to instruct Tucker Carlson and other right-wing hosts to stop spreading Trump’s claims, especially after admitting they were lies.
“We demand that you direct Tucker Carlson and other hosts on your network to stop spreading false election narratives and admit on the air that they were wrong to engage in such negligent behavior,” Schumer and Jeffries wrote.
“Though you have acknowledged your regret in allowing this grave propaganda to take place, your network hosts continue to promote, spew, and perpetuate election conspiracy theories to this day,” the leaders added.
Jeffries, a Brooklyn Democrat, told reporters at his weekly press conference that Murdoch’s right-leaning network has a special responsibility to tell Americans the truth about Trump and its own talking heads.
“Perhaps it’s time for America to be able to move past that Big Lie,” the powerful House minority leader said. “And an important step would be those who know it was a big lie, to publicly repudiate it.”
Murdoch did not immediately respond to the letter. Neither did Carlson or fellow Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham.
The Australian media mogul has admitted under oath that he knew Trump’s claims were false, but said the hosts “endorsed” the lies.
“I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it,” Murdoch said in a deposition.
Fox is facing a $1.6 billion defamation suit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, which sells electronic voting hardware and software.
Dominion says Fox News hosts deliberately amplified false claims by supporters of Trump that Dominion machines had changed votes in the 2020 election.
It claims that Fox executives knew the network was broadcasting “known lies…. but chose to let it continue.”
Ironically some of the strongest evidence in the case has come from the hosts themselves who admitted that they gave platforms to Trump acolytes like lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani even though they derided them as incorrigible liars.
Fox lawyers say the comments from Murdoch and the hosts were cherrypicked and the network did its best to show viewers both sides of Trump’s election lies that led to the failed insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.