President Donald Trump and Fox News have a complicated relationship. Election Day did not help. The cable news channel that kick-started Trump’s political career was suddenly in the position of signaling its potential end. The network’s early call of Arizona on Tuesday night for Joe Biden infuriated Trump and his aides, who publicly pressured Fox News executives to retract the call.
The network held firm — even as two of its biggest stars, Laura Ingraham and Jeanine Pirro, attended Trump’s defiant early-morning speech in the East Room of the White House.
The election-night split screen underscored the fine line that Fox News anchors and opinion hosts have been walking. By Wednesday afternoon, Fox News was the closest of any major network to calling the presidential race for Biden — not the outcome that many fans of its pro-Trump programming may have wanted.
Fox News was also the only major cable network to carry a news conference Wednesday held by the president’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who was making baseless claims of election fraud. But the channel promptly cut away to announce a major development: It projected a win in Michigan for Biden, placing him at the doorstep of the presidency.
And shortly after Bret Baier, the network’s chief political anchor, emphasized to viewers Wednesday that Trump’s threatened litigation could throw the race into doubt — even if Biden was projected to win 270 electoral votes — Fox News’ politics editor, Chris Stirewalt, threw cold water on some of the Trump campaign’s baseless claims.
“Lawsuits, schmawsuits,” Stirewalt said. “We haven’t seen any evidence yet that there’s anything wrong.”
Fox News has long occupied an unusual position in the Trump orbit. The network is home to some of the president’s most vociferous defenders, including Sean Hannity, Ingraham, and the hosts of “Fox & Friends.” But Trump frequently takes potshots at its news division and polling operation.
“Fox has changed a lot,” Trump said Tuesday morning on “Fox & Friends.” “Somebody said, ‘What’s the biggest difference between this and four years ago?’ I say, ‘Fox.’”
The president is a regular viewer and constant critic, praising preferred hosts by first name at rallies (“Jeanine!” “Tucker!”) and dialing up the network’s chief executive, Suzanne Scott, to complain about coverage. He has hired (and fired) former network personnel; belittled its hosts while also agreeing to interviews; and relied on Hannity’s political advice while bashing news anchors like Chris Wallace and Shepard Smith, who left the network for CNBC.
In the wake of Tuesday’s Arizona call, a mixed view of Fox News had spread to some of Trump’s allies. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a Republican who rose to fame on the strength of Fox News guest appearances, bashed the network for what he deemed an insufficiently swift projection of a Trump win in his home state.
“For Fox to be so resistant to calling Florida and yet jumping the gun on Arizona, I just thought was inexplicable,” DeSantis told reporters in Tallahassee on Wednesday. “I don’t think that that was done without some type of motive, whether it’s ratings, whether it’s something else.”
In fact, members of Fox News’ decision desk explained repeatedly that the network’s polling team — which reports to the news division and is sequestered on election night — was merely adhering to a rigorous analysis. The network’s data team, led by Arnon Mishkin, relies on a proprietary model that draws on data from The Associated Press.
Still, some Fox News personalities speculated whether Arizona would remain in Biden’s column. “There may be some tightening there,” Baier said Wednesday, summarizing arguments from the Trump campaign, while Bill Hemmer used an interactive map to conjure ways Trump could eke out a win in Pennsylvania.
But when Hemmer asked if the network might consider reversing the Arizona call, Stirewalt laughed. “Not that I see,” he said.
Wallace also offered a grim prognosis for the president. “It’s real simple math now,” he said, shortly after Fox News projected that Biden would win Wisconsin. Pointing to Biden’s advantages in Nevada and Michigan, he said: “If he just holds on to his lead in those two states, he’s the 46th president of the United States.” (Fox News would call Michigan just over an hour later.)
Hannity did not appear on Fox News on election night; he was poised to return Wednesday evening. The degree to which Fox News prime-time opinion hosts embrace Trump’s baseless claims of fraud will be closely scrutinized.
The network set a record for the highest Election Day prime-time viewership totals in cable news history, according to Nielsen. Fox News drew 13.6 million viewers between 8 and 11. Its next-closest competitor, CNN, drew 9 million in the three-hour block. Each of the three top broadcast networks carried less than half of Fox’s audience, with ABC, at 6.3 million viewers, leading that group.
This followed a delirious ratings run for Fox News in the weeks leading up to the election. In October, Fox News averaged 4.9 million viewers in prime time, up 85% from a year earlier and far higher than MSNBC, which finished second with 2.7 million viewers.
“Tucker Carlson Tonight” earned an average of 5.4 million viewers in October, the highest monthly average for any show in the history of cable news. And Fox News even scored higher viewership totals than any of the broadcast networks during the two presidential debates and the vice-presidential debate.
Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch’s elder son and the executive chairman of Fox News’ parent company, was asked on a Tuesday earnings call if a prospective Biden victory might rein in the channel’s ratings success. He pointed out that Fox News had dominated cable news rivals through “different administrations and different political cycles.” Murdoch added: “We fully expect to be No. 1.”
Michael M. Grynbaum and John Koblin c.2020 The New York Times Company
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