Fox News airs disclaimer during Trump CPAC speech about 2020 election

Fox News on Sunday aired a disclaimer adding context to comments made by former President Trump referencing electoral fraud during his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

“And now, it’s also because I got more votes, 75 million, than anybody in the history of the presidency, and far more than Clinton, far more than Obama, and a record 12 million more than 2016,” Trump said of what he has continued to describe as an effort to “rig” the election against him. “Think of it, in the history usually they go down a little bit second term and they win, but they go down a little bit.”

As Trump continued to make misleading or false claims about the result of the election, Fox News, which was carrying the former president’s speech live, replaced its chyron with a disclaimer. 

“Voting system companies have denied the various allegations made by President Trump and his counsel regarding the 2020 election,” the disclaimer read. 

This is a real disclaimer that ran on Fox during Trump’s CPAC Dallas speech: “THE VOTING SYSTEM COMPANIES HAVE DENIED THE VARIOUS ALLEGATIONS MADE BY PRESIDENT TRUMP…” pic.twitter.com/cTvWJgV9DK

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) July 11, 2021

In April, Fox News Media filed a response to a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit by the voting machine company Smartmatic that was filed against it for spreading Trump’s false claims about the election, saying it should be dismissed.

“The press does not lose its protection if the allegations are disproven; instead the reporting is part of the truthseeking process,” Fox New Media argued in its response to the lawsuit from Smartmatic. “That is why virtually every media outlet in the country covered the President’s election-fraud allegations without fear of being sued if they were disproved in court. Smartmatic’s efforts to erode that bedrock constitutional protection are dangerous and should be rejected.”

Fox did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the disclaimer that was displayed during Trump’s speech on Sunday. 

Trump and his allies criticized Fox News in the days and weeks that followed the election, taking issue with the network’s decision to call Arizona for President Biden before many other outlets and an unwillingness by many hosts and anchors at the network to back his unfounded claims of voter fraud. 

“.@FoxNews daytime ratings have completely collapsed. Weekend daytime even WORSE. Very sad to watch this happen, but they forgot what made them successful, what got them there. They forgot the Golden Goose. The biggest difference between the 2016 Election, and 2020, was @FoxNews,” Trump tweeted the week of the election.

On Sunday, Trump issued a statement attacking the mainstream press generally.

“I am proud to inform you that the Lamestream Media has hit the lowest approval ratings ever recorded,” Trump said in a statement Sunday. “I think it would be fair to assume that I had something to do with that.”