CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Friday morning made a direct appeal to Fox News and its ownership to make it “very clear” to its viewers that there are no signs of widespread voter fraud as former Vice President Joe Biden sits on the cusp of winning the presidency.
The conservative cable network should put “country above their profits,” the CNN star said.
After a tense few days, which featured President Donald Trump falsely claiming victory and making baseless accusations that the election is being stolen from him, Biden finally pulled ahead in the tipping-point state of Pennsylvania on Friday morning, placing news outlets in position to call the election for him.
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With Trump indicating that he will not concede, Tapper noted that this wasn’t just a “matter of good manners” but was actually a “matter of life and death,” pointing out that arrests have already been made in Philadelphia over a potential plot to attack a ballot-counting center. He added that this was likely inspired by the “nonsense on Fox,” referencing pro-Trump hosts and pundits peddling unhinged conspiracies about election fraud.
“I don’t normally talk about any competing network, but the Murdochs and the people at Fox have an obligation to put their country above their profits,” Tapper said. “It is very important that people make it very clear that this election, there is no credible evidence that we have seen of widespread fraud.”
“By all accounts, Joe Biden is on the precipice of becoming the next president fair and square,” he continued. “And people who have the privilege of sitting in seats like we’re sitting in right now have the obligation to convey that to their viewers so that there is a peaceful transfer of power and so that there isn’t violence.”
Tapper’s remarks were applauded by Kathryn Murdoch, the daughter-in-law of Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch and wife of James Murdoch, who recently quit the News Corp board over disagreements about the conservative media empire’s editorial decisions.
Last month, The Daily Beast reported that Rupert Murdoch had told close associated that he believed Biden would win the election in a landslide and that he was personally disgusted by Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. And in the wake of Biden’s near-certain victory, the network has seemingly begun to pivot away from Trump and pivot its focus on bashing the ex-vice president and Democrats.
At the same time, the network’s right-wing opinion hosts and commentators have continued to desperately push unsubstantiated and baseless claims about widespread voter fraud and railed against the network’s decision to call Arizona for Biden on Tuesday night, a call that enraged Trump.
