Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy on Thursday expressed concern over the state of the news media, and specifically Fox News, saying the election has exposed real problems with election projections.
He also thinks President Donald Trump, whose reelection bid was sold short by many early polls, and by early state winner projections, will prevail if his team gets to separate all the mail-in ballots and count them properly.
“I’m worried about the country. I’m not glad that the media landscape is so bad that Newsmax as an upstart is sort of the lone wolf out there in some ways,” Ruddy said Thursday during an appearance on Newsmax TV’s “American Agenda.”
“I’m disappointed on their coverage," he said of Fox, long a leading conservative media voice but lately leaving viewers frustrated over what they perceive as a distinct leftward shift.
"I think the turning point in the election was Chris Wallace moderating that debate with Trump. … Wallace, I felt, really sided with Biden.”
Ruddy noted that Kristin Welker of NBC moderated a much more balanced and fair debate.
Fox News was the first news outlet to call Arizona for Biden, doing so at 11 p.m. on Election Day, a move that angered President Donald Trump and his team.
The Associated Press followed suit the next day, though CNN, The New York Times, Newsmax, CBS News and ABC News have held off due to how close the race is – Biden currently leads, 50.5-48.2 percent with 88 percent of the votes counted.
It now seems the state is actually one of a handful whose vote, still in flux, will shape the final outcome of this contentious election.
Conservatives railed against Fox News for its decision to call Arizona and said they switched the channel to Newsmax following the announcement.
“Newsmax – the Nielsen ratings came out, we had 3 million people tune in on Election Night,” Ruddy said. “There’s a market in the country for people that are not getting fair news.”
The presidential race still remains too close to call, though Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden led Trump, 253-214, in Electoral College votes as of 5 p.m. ET, according to Newsmax results.
Six states have yet to be called by Newsmax and several other major news outlets as mail-in ballots are still being counted, though Pennsylvania – a big grab at 20 electoral college votes – could well announce a winner by Thursday night. Biden, who needs Arizona and Nevada, is within 2 percent in Pennsylvania with 369,000 mail-in ballots to count.
The president is legally fighting the counting of ballots well past Election Day, calling it a fraud against the legitimate election process.
Biden has benefited from a large surge of mail-in balloting, the method preferred by Democrats, who strongly advocated for its use amid the coronavirus pandemic.
But Trump’s campaign team is claiming voter fraud and has filed lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia, laying the groundwork for contesting battleground states.
“Unlike any other election I know of in American history this election had a huge number of mail-in ballots due to the coronavirus,” said Ruddy. “Why was this organized better by the Democrats? Was it rigged, as the president might say? If there’s a recount, they should look at the [actual mail-in] ballot.”
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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