A Newsmax host who drew attention Tuesday after walking out of an interview with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell said the following day that he “could have handled the end of the interview differently” and that Lindell will “continue to be an important guest” on the network.
Anchor Bob Sellers and co-host Heather Childers on Tuesday attempted to interview the vocal supporter of former President Trump regarding conservative complaints of “cancel culture” after Twitter permanently suspended the accounts of both Lindell and MyPillow after the CEO used them to advance unsupported theories of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
During Tuesday’s interview, Lindell repeatedly tried to voice allegations against Dominion Voting Systems, which Trump and his allies have accused of being involved in efforts to rig the vote against him.
Sellers tried to no avail to turn the interview back to the subject of cancel culture and subsequently asked his producers to cut away from Lindell. He eventually stood up and walked off camera in frustration.
During his Wednesday broadcast of “American Agenda,” Sellers addressed the heated interview, calling Lindell “a friend of the network.”
“We were supposed to discuss Twitter’s decision to ban him and the impacts of cancel culture on his business, but there was some confusion, and Mike thought that we were to talk about vote fraud in the recent election,” which Sellers added is “a topic we have covered extensively on Newsmax.”
“I was frustrated that we couldn’t focus on the current, very pressing issue of free speech and cancel culture, and, in hindsight, there is no question that I could have handled the end of the interview differently,” he continued.
Sellers went on to say that Newsmax aims to “seek out all points of view” and that Lindell appeared in a later segment Tuesday with host Rob Schmitt “to continue the conversation about cancel culture.”
“Mike also made clear he thinks Newsmax is great — his words — and I can tell you he will continue to be an important guest on Newsmax,” Sellers added, before cutting to Schmitt’s interview with Lindell the previous night.
The interview focused on Twitter’s move to ban his associated accounts, with Lindell arguing that “cancel culture keeps on spreading.”
He did not repeat his claims about Dominion or election fraud in his interview with Schmitt.
Lindell has been among Trump’s most fervent supporters, continuing to advance unsupported claims of a “rigged” 2020 presidential election two weeks after President Biden was sworn into office.
Dominion, which has already filed a billion-dollar lawsuit against Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani over similar claims, has also threatened Lindell with legal action, writing in a letter that he has been a leader of a “misinformation campaign” against 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.