Four years make a big difference for Donald Trump -- and for Fox News
On election night 2020, Fox News sparked an internal crisis with a bold call that Joe Biden would beat Donald Trump in the crucial state of Arizona, putting the Democrat on the path to victory
Four years ago, Fox News precipitated an internal crisis with a bold election night call that President Joe Biden would beat Donald Trump in the crucial state of Arizona. This year illustrated the difference that four years can make.
Fox News wasn't the first network early on Wednesday to declare Trump had sealed his victory over Kamala Harris — upstart NewsNation, conservative rival Newsmax and Scripps Networks led the way — but its ultimate call came nearly four hours before ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and The Associated Press made theirs.
Judging by the cheers that erupted when Fox's call was shown to the Trump faithful gathered at his West Palm Beach victory party, it was a decision that surely was received much better by its viewers than the 2020 call was.
“When you don't like how the cake tastes, you're not going to like the recipe,” said Chris Stirewalt, politics editor at NewsNation. “When you like the cake, you'll love the recipe.”
Fox's Bret Baier called Trump's victory “the biggest political phoenix from the ashes story that we have ever seen,” and Fox can claim a comeback of its own.
Fox's Arizona call in 2020 infuriated Trump and many of the network's viewers. While it ultimately proved correct, it set in motion furious internal second-guessing and led some Fox personalities to embrace conspiracy theories, which ultimately cost the network a staggering $787 million to settle a defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems.
NewsNation, which used information from the elections forecasting company Decision Desk HQ, made its call
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