Hours after calling Fox News “unwatchable,” President Trump phoned in to his once-favorite network to fire allegations of fraud at the Democratic Party and accuse the FBI and Justice Department of ignoring a “rigged election.”
As Fox News continues its drift away from its usually sympathetic coverage of Donald Trump, the embattled president ranted about the network on Saturday, calling its programming “virtually unwatchable,” and advising his followers to tune in to “almost anything else” instead.
Yet less than a day later, Trump phoned in to host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday morning for his first one-on-one interview since Joe Biden declared himself the winner in this month’s presidential election.
Trump reiterated his claim that the election was “rigged” in favor of Biden. The incumbent president cited “big massive dumps” of mail-in ballots, Republican poll-watchers being excluded from counting centers, and“garbage machinery” used to count votes as responsible for his loss, among other claims of Democrat skulduggery.
“Joe Biden did not get 16 million more votes than Barack Hussein Obama,” Trump declared. “He didn’t get it. Joe Biden did not get 14 million more votes than Hillary Clinton. And by the way, he didn’t beat Obama in the black communities.”
Trump’s allegations are, for now, up for the courts to deem valid or not. Civil lawsuits brought by lawyer Sidney Powell allege “massive election fraud” in Georgia and Michigan, while the Trump campaign’s legal efforts in Pennsylvania focus on the alleged counting of 680,000 ballots in Philadelphia without Republican oversight. That case was rejected by a federal appeals court in the state, a move that the Trump campaign claims enables them to bring it before the Supreme Court quicker. Another suit is planned in Wisconsin as the state has finished its recount.
“You have laid out some serious charges here,” Bartiromo said to Trump, before asking him whether the FBI or Justice Department were investigating the alleged fraud.
“Missing in action,” Trump replied. “It’s inconceivable. You would think if you’re in the FBI or Department of Justice, this is the biggest thing you could be looking at. Where are they? I’ve not seen anything. They just keep moving along and they go on to the next president.”
Trump then decried the FBI and Special Counsel Robert Mueller for “spying” on his campaign and investigating his supposed relations with Russia, respectively. Calling the agency and Mueller’s probe the “Russia Russia hoax,” Trump told Bartiromo that he would consider appointing a special prosecutor to look into the investigation.
Should his legal challenges fail, Trump will cede the presidency to Biden if the Electoral College certifies the former vice president’s apparent win, he told reporters on Thursday. While a number of media outlets have declared Biden the victor after he secured the 270 delegates needed to win, the Electoral College won’t meet to certify the result until mid-December, giving Trump several weeks to make his case in court.
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