FOX Cuts Off White House Press Conference, Can’t Air ‘False Claims’ in ‘Good Conscience’

On Monday, Fox News host Neil Cavuto abruptly cut off White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, over claims about the election being stolen, saying that he could not air “false claims” in “good conscience.”

McEnany started the press conference by reiterating President Trump’s previous assertions that the election is “not over” and that Republicans had “only begun the process of obtaining an accurate, honest vote count.”

She went on to make various accusations of fraud against the Democratic party.

Cavuto cut into the broadcast saying “Whoa, whoa, whoa, I just think we have to be very clear. She’s charging that the other side is ‘welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting. Unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good conscience continue showing you this.”

“I just think we have to be very clear that she’s charging [that] the other side is welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting. Unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good countenance continue showing you this,” Cavuto said after cutting off the broadcast.

“I want to make sure that maybe they do have something to back that up, but that’s an explosive charge to make that the other side is effectively rigging and cheating. If she does bring proof of that, of course, we’ll take you back,” he added.

Below is a longer clip showing what led up to the decision to cut off the press conference.

Trump campaign legal adviser Jenna Ellis criticized Cavuto’s decision to pull the plug on the press conference, saying that, “The enormity of what’s happening in media cannot be ignored. If an attorney held a press conference and said she has evidence exonerating her client, the press should NOT cut away and substitute its own judgment, claiming no proof. That’s acting as a party in interest, not press.”

Fox has given very generous coverage to Trump during his time in the White House, even on his widely criticized response to the COVID pandemic. However, in the past week, the network has broken from their pattern of unwavering support for the president as he continues to contest the election. To his credit, Cavuto was one of the few Fox employees to question Trump on his controversial decisions and statements.

Earlier this year, he warned his viewers not to take hydroxychloroquine, saying, “I cannot stress that enough. This. Will. Kill. You.”

This is not the first time that he cut off a Trump press conference either. This summer he interrupted one of Trump’s speeches to fact-check claims that were being made about former President Barack Obama’s record.

In his first public appearance since the election on Tuesday, Trump gave a controversial speech from the White House, which caused many networks to cut their coverage prematurely after he claimed that he would win the election if the “legal” votes were counted. MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, and NPR, decided to cut their coverage of the speech prematurely, but Fox aired the rest of the speech. Now days later they are cutting off a White House official for making the same claims.

Trump does not appear to be backing down in the face of relentless fact-checking, and McEnany’s comments tonight confirm that he intends to follow through with his threats to legally contest the election.