Newly revealed audio shows Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) explaining how delaying the certification of President Biden’s 2020 election victory would work on a call with a leading Fox News host and her former producer.
“I think that the country deserves to have a credible assessment of these claims and what the evidence shows and the mechanism to try and force that is delaying the certification of the results on the sixth,” Cruz told Fox host Maria Bartiromo and Abby Grossberg, a leading producer on her show.
Cruz was referring to Jan. 6, 2021 — the day Congress was to certify the election results. A mob of then-President Trump’s supporters ended up overwhelming Capitol Police and interrupting that largely ceremonial event, forcing the temporary evacuation of Congress. Lawmakers resumed their work after the Capitol was cleared.
The tapes with the Cruz comments were provided to MSNBC this week by Grossberg, who was fired by Fox and is suing the network, alleging a toxic work environment and rampant sexism at the company.
In a tweet late Tuesday, Cruz responded to the publication of the tapes.
“This MSNBC clown is breathlessly reporting that I ‘secretly’ said in a phone call … the EXACT same thing I said on national television the next morning!” ” Cruz tweeted.
Cruz’s office, in a press release four days before the attack on the Capitol, joined a number of other GOP senators in a statement calling for an electoral commission, with full investigatory and fact-finding authority, to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in the disputed states.
“Voter fraud has posed a persistent challenge in our elections, although its breadth and scope are disputed,” the senators wrote. “By any measure, the allegations of fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election exceed any in our lifetimes.”
Fox has separately accused Grossberg, who says she has dozens more tapes taken from inside the network around the 2020 election, of lying about the company and her experiences there.
The network last week paid $787.5 million to settle a defamation claim from Dominion Voting Systems in connection to allegations that its hosts, including Bartiromo, knowingly amplified false information and conspiracy theories that Trump and his allies touted about the company’s involvement in the 2020 election.
“Abby Grossberg’s allegations in connection with the Dominion case are baseless and she had no bearing on the settlement,” Fox said in a statement Tuesday. “We will vigorously defend Fox against all of her unmeritorious legal claims, which are riddled with false allegations against the network and our employees.”
Updated at 11:26 a.m.