Fox News on Monday morning carried live, continuous coverage of the second hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, which featured testimony from a former top editor at the conservative media giant who was ousted from the company shortly after the 2020 election.
During Monday’s hearing, Chris Stirewalt, a veteran of conservative media who was part of the team at Fox News that made the decision to call Arizona for Joe Biden on election night in 2020, explained to the committee the process Fox used to follow election results and ultimately make calls in states across the country.
Fox’s decision to call Arizona for Biden on election night infuriated and shocked former President Trump and members of his inner circle, witnesses have told the committee.
Stirewalt, who says he was ousted from Fox in what the company has called a “restructuring” after the election, has previously said he was proud of his team’s election night call of Arizona for Biden.
He explained to the committee a phenomenon known in political and election circles as a “red mirage,” where Republicans usually see better results in same-day voting, while Democrats often win more votes that come in via absentee or mail-in voting.
A record number of Americans voted by mail in the 2020 election due to ongoing public health concerns stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.
After explaining that the team at Fox used this knowledge to make its calls on election night, Stirewalt was asked on Monday what he thought Trump’s chances of winning the election were after Arizona had been called for Biden.
“None,” he replied, later deadpanning, “You’re better off to play the Powerball than to have that come in,” a reference to any come-from-behind Trump victory.
Monday’s hearing focused on how Trump and those in his orbit knew there was no validity to his voter fraud claims.
Fox offered live, continuous coverage on its main cable channel of Monday’s hearing, a departure from how the network handled the panel’s first hearing, which was conducted in prime time last week and was covered in full by every other major television network.
Fox instead offered live coverage of last week’s hearing on its business network and via its streaming platforms. The decision sparked criticism from Democrats and many media pundits, some of whom argued the network was attempting to hide the truth about the Capitol attack from its massive nightly prime-time audience.