The battle over Arizona’s 11 electoral votes continues to heat up with President Trump cutting Joe Biden’s lead in half on Wednesday and performing well in a vote dump early Thursday, suggesting he may still have a shot at a state many outlets had already called for the Democrats.
Winning back Arizona is a critical element of Trump’s few remaining paths to victory. “Trump is on pace to win Arizona,” said Trump’s campaign manager Jason Miller during a Thursday morning press call.
Trump, who on the morning of the election called into Fox and Friends and complained bitterly at how unfair they had been to him during his presidency, was enraged by Tuesday night's call in favor of Biden.
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A source told Vanity Fair that Trump phoned Murdoch, who owns Fox, apparently- 'to scream about the call and demand a retraction.'
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The 89-year-old media mogul did not agree to order his staff to retract the Arizona call.
Biden was ahead by 5 percentage points with 80% of the votes counted, and the wire service concluded “there were not enough [ballots] outstanding to allow Trump to catch up.” While Fox News also independently called the race, many other major news outlets were hesitant to announce a winner. Associated Press has called Arizona for Biden, but NBC and CNN are yet to do so.
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Within the network, the decision to announce the Arizona result was greeted with anger, as reported by the magazine.+4
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'We called it long before MSNBC!' one outraged staffer on the opinion side told the magazine.
'We were so worried about being seen as pro-Trump that we bent over backwards.'
Sam Nunberg, a former Trump adviser, accused Fox of 'voter suppression', acting to deliberately discourage Trump supporters from bothering to vote.
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'Fox News committed news malpractice and voter suppression last night,' he told Vanity Fair.
'There's got to be a change there or there will be major consequences. Chris Wallace wouldn't shut up the whole night! I switched to CNN anytime he came on.'
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Their decision to call Arizona means that they currently give Biden a higher tally of electoral college votes than rival CNN.
'Fox News has Biden at 264, six away from victory, while many other outlets are at 253,' tweeted Andrew Kirrel, an editor with the Daily Beast.
'So this means if enough NV results come in tonight, Fox News could conceivably be the first outlet to call the election for Biden—and do it during Hannity’s or Ingraham's show.'
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