Fox News anchor Jesse Watters was flummoxed by the news of Donald Trump’s third federal indictment on Tuesday, asking, “Are we going to now have to go back and find fraud in the 2020 election?”
The former president’s latest legal charges stem from the Jan. 6 riot and his alleged attempt to stop the ballot count from the 2020 election, in which he lost to current President Joe Biden.
“They lead off with saying the President lied about election fraud and knew there was no fraud. If this goes to trial, are we going to now have to go back and find fraud in the 2020 election,” he asked.
“How do they know that he knew that there was no fraud and if this goes to trial are we going to now have to go back and find fraud in the 2020 election? Is this now what we’re gonna go re-litigate?” Watters continued, embracing the conspiracy theory that’s been dubbed “the Big Lie” that Trump, not Biden won the 2020 election.
“Does this open up the entire 2020 election in a court setting to Donald Trump going back and proving that there was indeed fraud and presenting evidence of fraud and having that challenged in the court? Is this really what we’re going to do?” he said.
“Now they’re saying that it was a conspiracy to fraudulently claim there was no fraud,” he continued.
As part of the settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, Fox News chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch publicly admitted in February that several anchors on the conservative network, including Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro and Sean Hannity, endorsed what they knew to be a lie about the election.
Fox News settled with Dominion for $787.5 million and a concession of “false” claims, although the agreement did not force the network or its employees to admit those lies on-air.
