-Donald Trump is lashing out
at Fox boss Rupert Murdoch amid the ongoing fallout
from a billion-dollar defamation lawsuit
in which Murdoch admitted that several Fox hosts lied
to their viewers about the 2020 election.
In fact, Murdoch even confessed that platforming those lies
was a business decision.
The court filing also revealed that Fox and Murdoch
were secretly helping the Trump campaign.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪ [ Cheering and applause ]
For years, now,
the shtick over at Fox has been the same.
They lie to their viewers while simultaneously
telling those same viewers
that it's the rest of the media who's lying to them
and that Fox is the only outlet telling the truth.
Even now, after their lies have been exposed
in a series of court filings,
they're still doing that same shtick.
-They lie to you over and over again.
How many Americans believe these lies?
-It makes me angry because they're lying.
They're deliberately lying.
They knew they were lying.
-I want to challenge people watching tonight
who don't wear red hats, don't consider themselves MAGA,
don't consider themselves very strong political people.
I want you to ask yourself how many times you've been lied to,
not just by this government,
but how many times you lied to by the people whose job it is
to tell you the truth in the media.
-Being lectured about the truth by Kellyanne Conway is like
getting lessons on conflict resolution from Megan.
[ Laughter and applause ] They should start spelling Kellyanne the same way.
[ Laughter and applause ] But I'll count.
I'll count all the times the government lied to me.
There was that time they claimed
the inauguration was the biggest ever.
There was that time they said a bunch of people died
at the Bowling Green massacre, which is not a thing.
There was the time they said the president didn't know
about hush money payments,
even though he wrote the check himself.
Oh, there was that time in March of 2020
when a government official told us
the coronavirus was being contained.
I can't wait to see who this is.
Maybe it's the liberal media mob or Sleepy Joe Biden.
Oh, or that evil Dr. Fauci.
-The HHS secretary said this morning
that we're ramping up, we're ramping up
with the commercial labs. -Why now? Why didn't they do it
while it was contained, get ahead of it?
-It is being contained. And --
Do you not think it's being contained?
[ Laughter ] -In addition to being an accomplished liar,
she always talked to reporters
like a gossipy teen at her locker.
[ As Conway ] Do you not think Devin's going to ask me to prom?
[ Laughter ] Because he's definitely --
he's definitely going to ask me to prom.
He's the star quarterback and I'm the cheer captain.
[ Laughter ] "Kellyanne, you're not even on the cheerleading team."
Yeah, but I'm cheerful.
[ Laughter ]
I'm like famously cheerful.
[ Laughter ]
Although, while we're on the topic,
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention
my personal favorite Kellyanne lie, from April of 2020,
when she tried to blame everyone but Trump for the COVID crisis.
-This is COVID-19, not COVID 1, folks,
and so you would think the people charged
with the World Health Organization
facts and figures
-Right. -would be on top of that.
People should know the facts.
-Yeah, people should know the facts,
like the fact that the 19 in COVID-19 is
for the year it was discovered, not because it's the 19th COVID,
[ Laughter ] but good on you for thinking they name diseases
the same way they name Fast & Furious movies.
[ Laughter and applause ] The coolest part in COVID-19
is when COVID convinces Spanish flu to come out of retirement
to help break SARS out of prison.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Anyway, the point is their schtick is falling apart,
now that we have definitive proof,
in these court filings from the billion-dollar Dominion lawsuit,
that Fox hosts were not only lying,
but they knew they were lying.
-Fox staff were privately blasting the big lie as BS,
insane, mind blowingly nuts, reckless.
-As Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell
were making wildly false claims about rigged voting machines
after Trump lost in 2020,
private communications reveal that pro-Trump voices
at Fox News were calling it nuts.
-Breaking news tonight involving Fox News
and owner Rupert Murdoch,
acknowledging, under oath,
Fox News hosts endorsed false election fraud claims.
-Fox News boss Rupert Murdoch said,
in a sworn deposition, that any Fox News executives
who allowed lies about the 2020 election to be broadcast...
...or...
-Wow. Notice he didn't say fired.
He said got rid of.
[ Laughter ] I'd be a little nervous,
if I worked over at Fox News.
Next time you're in Rupert's office,
make sure you're not standing on top of any trapdoors.
[ Laughter ] Now, just as a reminder,
I don't have a Rupert Murdoch impression,
but I do have a borderline offensive Australian accent,
so, I think, if you were in your office,
it would go a little something like this.
[ Australian accent ] Uh, listen, Tom,
I --
[ Laughter ]
We're going to have to get rid of ya, mate,
but we got a pretty good severance package for you.
I'd love to fill you in on it.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Before I do, just move to the left a little bit, alright?
[ Laughter ] And now forward a little bit.
[ Laughter ] Yeah, that's great. That's great and, uh, perfect.
And one last thing, Tom.
Say hi to the sharks for me, you son of a bitch!
[ Laughter and applause ]
Thank you.
[ Cheering ]
You know it's nice because it's --
it's like borderline offensive.
It's right on that border.
[ Laughter ]
Now, as we've discussed this week,
Murdoch and the Fox hosts knew they were lying
and admitted in private they were lying,
but it wasn't just the lying.
As bad as that is, Fox was also actively helping
and providing material aid to the Trump campaign
during the 2020 election.
So, Fox allegedly took confidential company information
about Biden campaign ads
and gave that information to the Trump campaign.
That is shocking. Also,
I can't imagine how it could've possibly helped Trump,
since the basic gist of Biden's campaign was,
"I'm normal and he's out of his [bleep] mind."
[ Laughter and applause ] I mean, what were those strategy sessions like?
[ As Trump ] I just heard from Rupert.
He says Biden's ads are all
about how he's normal and I'm weird.
So, we got to start doing ads where I look and sound normal.
Let's do some shots of me doing normal stuff in my wheelhouse,
like drinking water, hugging a flag,
using an umbrella, and looking directly at the sun.
[ Laughter and applause ] The sun. We love the sun,
don't we, folks? And we just -- we want to touch it.
We want to touch the sun. I had a friend,
[ Laughter ] a dear friend,
a dear friend, a Greek guy.
His name was Daedalus, Dedalus -- either one's fine.
[ Laughter ] Both are okay.
I never quite learned how to say it.
He had a son, Icarus. They made a pair of wings.
Beautiful wings.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Beautiful wings out of beeswax.
And I was there when they took off
and Daedalus, he said to his son, "Ic" --
That's what I called him. I called him Ic. I said --
[ Laughter and applause ] He said to him, he said,
"Don't fly too close to the sun,"
but then I took him aside and said, "If I were you,
I'd try to get as close as you can, Izzie.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Because it looks like a big gold coin.
It might be gold. You never know.
You got to get as close as you can.
And Ickie took my advice and his wings melted.
He fell right into the sea.
[ Laughter and applause ] Big old splash.
It was so sad.
[ Laughter ] So -- The saddest splash.
And I remember his dad came
over to me, he said, "Did you see what happened?"
And I just looked at him. I said, "Hey,
it's none of my beeswax."
[ Laughter and applause ]
Also --
[ Cheering ]
Also, they gave -- they gave Trump debate strategy?
What was Rupert Murdoch's genius debate tip,
just snort Adderall and never stop talking for 90 minutes?
-You got to be kidding. -Not malicious.
-Chris, he's so wrong when he makes a statement like that.
Oh, well, that's a big statement. -If you let --
I support the block -- -That means you just lost
the radical left, gone. -I supp--
-They said it would take -- No, you were number two.
China ate your lunch, Joe.
-He said, "Stupid bastards." -Mister -- Please.
-Not true. -He said.
[ Laughter ] -Good debate prep, Rupert!
[ Australian accent ] Remember, Donald, everyone trusts a screamer!
[ Laughter ]
This is an especially shocking revelation,
but, of course, it's also not surprising.
There's been a long symbiotic relationship
between Fox News and the Republican Party
and that relationship only intensified
during the Trump era.
On-air personalities, like Sean Hannity
and Jeanine Pirro, actually campaigned onstage
with Trump at a rally in 2018
and, even after Trump's presidency was over,
Fox host Tucker Carlson was seen cackling wildly next to Trump
[ Laughter ] while watching a Saudi-funded
golf tournament at one of Trump's clubs.
So, yes, Murdoch and Fox helped the Trump campaign
and spread the lie that the election was rigged
for political purposes, but, as Murdoch freely admitted,
he also did it for profit.
In that same court filing, Murdoch was asked
why Fox had continued to give a platform
to election wingnut and pillow guy Mike Lindell,
[ Laughter ] who spends lots of money on advertising on Fox,
and Murdoch said the decision to platform Lindell
had nothing to do with politics.
It was about money.
-Today's filing also reveals,
"when asked why Fox continues
to give a platform to," for example, Mike Lindell --
"who continues to this day to [lie] about Dominion --"
Murdoch said it's not red or blue, it's green.
[ Laughter ] -"It's not red or blue, it's green," sounds as damning
as Colonel Jessup saying,
"You're goddamn right I" ordered the Code Red.
[ Laughter and applause ] When Murdoch said it,
did the lawyers in the room make that face Tom Cruise did
when he couldn't believe he got the confession?
[ Laughter and applause ]
The court filings also reveal that,
despite providing aid to the Trump campaign
and spreading his lies, Fox and Murdoch panicked
and tried to backpedal away from him
after the January 6th insurrection.
-The court filing makes clear that,
after the riot at the Capitol,
Murdoch was through with Donald Trump,
writing in one email...
-Too late, mother[bleep]. You built this.
[ Laughter and applause ] It's easy to put a brain
in Frankenstein when he's
a lifeless body strapped to a table,
but good luck getting it out of his head
while he's lumbering around a golf course
[ Laughter ] and interrupting weddings at Mar-A-Lago
to give off-the-cuff toasts.
[ As Trump ] In conclusion, love is good and fire --
fire is bad.
[ Laughter and applause ]
To the newlyweds.
That revelation angered Trump,
who's been melting down all week on his fake Twitter service,
trashing Murdoch and Fox News.
Trump wrote earlier this week...
"REBUKED & FORSAKEN"?
It sounds like he asked ChatGPT
to write a coked-up version of the Old Testament.
[ Laughter and applause ]
I also do love when Trump
starts using big words, like rebuked and forsaken,
despite the fact that he can't spell the word stolen.
[ Laughter and applause ]
We don't know how this case will turn out.
We do know that the filings, once again, prove
that Fox is not a legitimate news organization.
They actively helped the presidential campaign.
They knowingly lied to their viewers.
They tried to backpedal away from Trump,
but, by then, it was too late
and now, the monster they've created is turning on them.
If Murdoch and his allies
thought they could simply get rid of Trump
after spending years elevating him,
then I guess they're just...
-Stupid bastards.
[ Laughter and applause ] -This has been "A Closer Look."
♪♪ [ Cheering and applause ]