Former President Donald Trump is not finished with his online tirade against Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch after he admitted in a deposition that some of the network's hosts "endorsed" false claims about his election loss.
A court filing in Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network revealed that the Fox boss and other pro-Trump Fox hosts privately mocked the very same false election claims they aired.
Trump's targeted rant against Murdoch began earlier this week after the Fox executive said in a deposition that he knew there was no truth to Trump's false claims but chose not to do anything about it as his network continued to air them.
"Rupert Murdoch should apologize to his viewers and readers for his ridiculous defense of the 2020 Presidential Election," Trump wrote Thursday on Truth Social. "How many forms of cheating and rigging does he have to see? He should also apologize to those anchors who got it right, and fire the ones who got it wrong, or were afraid to speak up (of which there were many!). It's time to get rid of Fake News, and call it like it is!"
Trump wants Rupert Murdoch to apologize to Fox News viewers. pic.twitter.com/P8mi9zsiKK
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) March 2, 2023
He then turned his anger toward former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who now sits on the Fox Corp.'s board of directors.
"Rumors are flying high that idiot RINO Paul Ryan, who has greatly hurt the 'credibility' of Rupert Murdoch with his ridiculous stance that the 2020 Election was all "peaches and cream," will be fired "like a dog" from the Fox Board," Trump wrote.
"Fox is going in the wrong direction, ratings are heading down, and Murdoch just threw certain very good people, who were correct, under the bus," the former president continued. "He played right into the enemies camp. Viewers, and MAGA, are not happy!"
"I think that Fox Board Member RINO Paul Ryan, put his boss, Rupert Murdoch, in great legal and monetary jeopardy by convincing him to to go against his news anchors and their belief that the 2020 Presidential Election was Rigged and Stollen [sic]," Trump continued in his another post.
"In so doing Murdoch is saying that Fox behaved badly when, in fact, evidence has proven that the Election was rife with Election Fraud and Irregularities," he added. "Ryan is bad luck for Fox. He should either resign or be fired. Too many incompetent RINOS at FoxNews!"
Fox is also under fire from congressional leaders including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
The two lawmakers sent a letter to Murdoch on Wednesday, demanding that he stop the advancement of 2020 election conspiracies on the right-wing channel and that he have the network publicly admit to wrongdoing.
Fox has repeatedly denied the allegations against them, framing the lawsuit as an attack on the network's First Amendment rights, and previously stated that Dominion "cherry-picked" evidence in their filing to "smear" the network. Fox Corp. has argued that its executives were not directly involved in the decision to air the false claims.
The Democrats, who also addressed Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch and Fox News Media President Jay Wallace, called out Murdoch for his admission that Fox News hosts knowingly pushed election lies.
"The leadership of your company was aware of the dangers of broadcasting these outlandish claims," the letter states. "By your own account, Donald Trump's election lies were 'damaging' and 'really crazy stuff.' Despite that shocking admission, Fox News hosts have continued to peddle election denialism to the American people. This sets a dangerous precedent that ignores basic journalistic fact-checking principles and public accountability."
Schumer and Jeffries also used the letter to express their concern that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy allowed Fox News star Tucker Carlson to review the footage from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot despite his constant false narratives about the insurrection on air.
"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," the letter reads.
"As evidenced by the January 6 insurrection, spreading this false propaganda could not only embolden supporters of the Big Lie to engage in further acts of political violence, but also deeply and broadly weakens faith in our democracy and hurts our country in countless other ways," it continues.
"Fox News executives and all other hosts on your network have a clear choice," the congressmen wrote. "You can continue a pattern of lying to your viewers and risking democracy or move beyond this damaging chapter in your company's history by siding with the truth and reporting the facts. We ask that you make sure Fox News ceases disseminating the Big Lie and other election conspiracy theories on your network."
New letter from Schumer and Jeffries to Rupert Murdoch following Dominion lawsuit revelations pic.twitter.com/OVUep7vgk7
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 1, 2023
