By 11pm on election evening, Fox Information was declaring Donald Trump “a phoenix from the ashes”.
“[He’s] the largest political phoenix from the ashes that we’ve seen within the historical past of politics,” mentioned anchor Bret Baier.
As counts in some swing states have been beginning to present Trump within the lead, and Trump’s likelihood of profitable appeared to extend, a few of Fox’s greatest stars have been writing the primary draft of his comeback victory.
“That is probably the most unbelievable political comeback that we’ve seen since 1968,” mentioned commentator Ben Domenech. It will likely be “not simply the best political comeback of all time,” added Laura Ingraham. “It will likely be the best comeback in historical past.”
Fox Information continues to be firmly within the middle of the conservative media universe, regardless of rising competitors from the likes of NewsMax, the One American Information (OAN) community, and myriad conservative podcasts. The US broadcaster stays the most-watched cable information community within the nation, persistently beating CNN and MSNBC within the rankings.
Although not one of the essential seven battleground states had been known as by the community by 11pm on election evening, Fox’s roundtable seemed to be preparing for a Trump victory, speculating on what it will say about the way forward for politics and American media.
Sean Hannity, who didn’t make any election evening appearances in 2020, mentioned on Tuesday evening: “In any case they’ve thrown at this man, in spite of everything they’ve executed to this man, with all of the media that wouldn’t even vet [Harris] and her radical positions, what would this say about legacy media? It’s useless.”
Jesse Watters informed viewers {that a} Trump win can be a “mandate” to run the nation. A Trump victory can be a “full rejection of every little thing [the media] has been telling us about Donald Trump”, he added.
A number of Fox commentators famous that Trump seemed to be doing effectively with Black and Hispanic voters, noting the “numerous coalition” that Trump’s marketing campaign has pulled collectively this election. Commentator Dana Perino known as it probably the most “racially numerous political coalition that we’ve seen in generations”.
Issues have been trying fairly completely different on election evening in 2020. Simply earlier than 11.30pm, Fox Information known as Arizona in favor of Joe Biden. The decision was pivotal. Arizona had voted for Trump in 2016, a slide to Biden would counsel Donald Trump’s grasp had loosened because the 2016 election.
The early name infuriated Trump, who had come to see Fox Information as a pleasant extension of his communications workforce, continuously calling into the community throughout his presidency and showing for unique interviews.
Ever since then, the community, owned by media scion Rupert Murdoch, has needed to navigate a generally tense relationship with Trump. The previous president has given the community its highest rankings. On election evening in 2020, the community obtained 14.1 million viewers between 8pm and 11pm – 5 million greater than CNN throughout the identical time block, and greater than double the viewership of different information networks.
However the cozy relationship has additionally gotten the community in bother. Fox Information paid voting machine maker Dominion $787.5m in a settlement over misinformation within the 2020 election. It nonetheless has a $2.7bn lawsuit from Smartmatic within the courts.
Going into the 2024 presidential election, the community has been strolling a tightrope. It hosted a city corridor with Trump in January, the primary time the previous president had appeared on the community in nearly two years. He has known as into the community extra and took part in one other city corridor hosted by the community in October. Murdoch, who in 2020 mentioned that “Trump will likely be changing into irrelevant”, confirmed up to the Republican nationwide conference in Milwaukee in July.
However Trump and Fox Information have put far between one another since 2016. Within the days main as much as the election, Trump informed reporters that he was irritated that the community stored enjoying clips from Oprah’s speech supporting Harris.
“ who else ought to be ashamed of themselves is Fox,” Trump mentioned. “All people thinks Fox is so pro-Trump. They’re not pro-Trump in any respect.”
However on Tuesday evening, even with most swing states too near name, Fox introduced among the community’s most Trump-friendly commentators on air to boost the prospect of a Trump resurrection – and talk about its potential implications.
“It might be as much as the Democrats and the media,” Watters mentioned. “What’s their posture towards the best comeback victory that we’ve ever seen?”
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