Newsmax anchor walks away from Mike Lindell interview after he won’t drop fraud claims
A Newsmax host on Tuesday walked off camera in the middle of an interview with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell after the businessman and vocal supporter of former President Trump refused to stop voicing unsupported claims of fraud in the 2020 election.
Anchor Bob Sellers and fellow host Heather Childers attempted to interview Lindell on conservative complaints of “cancel culture” after Twitter permanently suspended his account last week over his continued efforts to advance allegations that the vote was rigged in favor of President Biden.
Twitter on Monday also officially banned the MyPillow company account after Lindell utilized it to make several posts attacking Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and promoting unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.
Speaking with Newsmax on Tuesday, Lindell repeatedly tried to voice his allegations against Dominion Voting Systems, which Trump and his allies have accused of being involved in efforts to rig the vote against him.
“Mike, thank you very much,” Sellers said as Lindell tried to talk over him, repeating Lindell’s name multiple times in an attempt to get his attention.
“You’re talking about machines that we at Newsmax have not been able to verify any of those kinds of allegations,” Sellers continued. “We just want to let people know that there’s nothing substantive with what we’ve seen.”
Sellers then went on and read from a written statement as Lindell attempted to speak over him.
“Let me read you something,” he said. “While there were some clear evidence of some cases of vote fraud and election irregularities, the election results in every state were certified, and Newsmax accepts the results as legal and final, the courts have also supported that view.”
Childers then attempted to interrupt the two to get a hold of the situation before Sellers was able to briefly get Lindell’s attention by asking, “Could you make an argument that this could be a temporary banning rather than permanent?”
Lindell responded, “No, I want it to be a permanent because you know what? They did this because I’m revealing all the evidence on Friday of all the election fraud of these machines — ”
Sellers interrupted him, saying, “Can I ask our producers, can we get out of here, please? I don’t want to have to keep going over this,” and Lindell again attempted to talk over him.
While Childers once again attempted to get a hold of the interview, Sellers got up from his chair and walked out of the camera’s view.
Newsmax invites Mike Lindell, who advocated for a coup and spews dangerous conspiracy theories, on air. It didn’t go well. pic.twitter.com/6xzSgXlHua
— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) February 2, 2021
Several Republicans have backed away from their earlier claims of widespread voter fraud following the violent Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, which Democrats say was spurred by Trump’s repeated allegations of a “rigged” election against him.
Others, including Lindell, have continued to advance theories of fraud and voting machine irregularities nearly two weeks after Biden was officially sworn into office.
Dominion has threatened Lindell with legal action, writing in a letter that he has been a leader of a “misinformation campaign” against the company.
Dominion has already filed a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit against Trump’s personal attorney,Rudy Giuliani over his similar claims about the company.
Newsmax last week published an online promotion supporting Lindell following reports that several companies, including Kohl’s and Bed Bath & Beyond, had stopped selling MyPillow products.
“During the election he stood up for what he believed, and he continues to fight for what’s right,” the promotion said, adding, “Make sure you support him by buying one of his great pillows or related products.”
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