Donald Trump Claims The Media Is Rigging The Election

Donald Trump Says The “Dishonest And Distorted Media” Are “Rigging The Election.” Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump tweeted on October 16 that the “election is being rigged by the media, in a coordinated effort with the Clinton campaign” and that the “dishonest and distorted media” is “pushing Crooked Hillary”:

Polls close, but can you believe I lost large numbers of women voters based on made up events THAT NEVER HAPPENED. Media rigging election!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2016

Election is being rigged by the media, in a coordinated effort with the Clinton campaign, by putting stories that never happened into news!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2016

The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary - but also at many polling places - SAD

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2016

[Twitter, 10/16/16, 10/16/16, 10/16/16]

On Sunday Political Shows, Mike Pence, Newt Gingrich, And Rudy Giuliani Push Trump’s Claim That The Election Is Being Rigged By The Media

On Meet The Press, Mike Pence Said “The Obvious Bias In The National Media” Against Trump Is “Where The Sense Of A Rigged Election” Comes From. Republican vice presidential nominee Indiana Gov. Mike Pence claimed multiple times on NBC’s Meet the Press that “the national media” are covering “unsubstantiated claims” that his running mate, presidential nominee Donald Trump, sexually assaulted several women instead of “corruption and pay to play in the Clinton Foundation years.” Pence said that “the obvious bias in the national media” is “where the sense of a rigged election” comes from and that he and Trump will “work our hearts out against all odds, against most of you in the national media.” [NBC, Meet the Press, 10/16/16]

On Face The Nation, Pence Claimed The Election Is A “Two-On-One Fight” With Many “In The National Media Doing Half Of Hillary Clinton’s Work For Her.” On CBS’ Face the Nation, Pence argued that when Trump talks about a “rigged election,” he’s referring to “the monolithic support of the national media for Hillary Clinton’s campaign.” Pence went on to call the election a “two-on-one fight with many of you in the national media doing half of Hillary Clinton's work for her every day”:

JOHN DICKERSON (HOST): Another thing [Trump] is saying is that the election is rigged. My question is: Is that a responsible thing for a candidate to say?



MIKE PENCE: Well, I think what Donald Trump is talking about is, frankly, what appears to be the monolithic support of the national media for Hillary Clinton's campaign. Their willful ignorance about the avalanche of hard evidence, not allegations, John, but hard evidence now coming out in these emails of collusion and pay-for-play politics. And the American people are just tired of it. Look, we’ll respect the outcome of this election, John. Let me be very clear, Donald Trump said in the first debate that we'll respect the will of the American people in this election, the peaceful transfer of power is a hallmark of American history, and elections get really tough. But the American people are getting awful tired of this two-on-one fight with many of you in the national media doing half of Hillary Clinton's work for her every day. All we're asking for is whatever you want to report about our campaign, let's get out there, let's let the facts speak for themselves. But let's get before the American people this avalanche of emails that is confirming pay-to-play politics and outright corruption during the Clinton years. [CBS, Face the Nation, 10/16/16]

On Fox News Sunday, Pence Argued “The Media Is Piling On With Unsubstantiated Claims” About Trump. On Fox News Sunday, Pence said that “the media is piling on with unsubstantiated claims as the headlines while they ignore an avalanche of hard evidence about corruption” by Clinton. Pence excluded Fox News from his claim about the media, saying, “many in the national media, present company excepted, want to talk about everything else except the issues.” [Fox Broadcasting Co., Fox News Sunday, 10/16/16]

On This Week, Newt Gingrich Claimed “This Election Is Being Rigged By The National Media.” On ABC’s This Week, Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich claimed that “it's amazing that Trump is as close as he is right now considering the one-sidedness of the news media barrage,” and that “This election is being rigged by the national media who are doing everything they can to suppress bad news about Hillary, and everything they can to maximize bad news about Trump.” Gingrich also cited a blog to say that “this is a coup d’etat. … Fourteen million citizens in private ballots Donald Trump, 20 TV executives have decided to destroy him.” [ABC, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, 10/16/16]

On State Of The Union, Rudy Giuliani Said The Election Is Rigged Because “80 To 85 Percent Of The Media Is Against” Trump. On CNN’s State of the Union, Trump surrogate and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani said that when Trump “talks about a rigged election, he's not talking about the fact that it's going to be rigged at the polls. What he's talking about is that 80 to 85 percent of the media is against him.” Giuliani added that newspapers publish stories about Trump that are “totally baseless” and “silly,” specifically naming The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New York Daily News:

RUDY GIULIANI: When [Trump] talks about a rigged election, he's not talking about the fact that it's going to be rigged at the polls. What he's talking about is that 80 to 85 percent of the media is against him. That when you look at The New York Times and you pick it up every morning, on the top of the paper, there are three stories that are anti-Trump -- some of them totally baseless, some of them silly -- and then at the bottom you get a little something about WikiLeaks. Or same thing with The Washington Post, I mean they’re way out of control. The [New York] Daily News. [CNN, State of the Union, 10/16/16]