Minutes after the New Hampshire Republican primary was called for Donald Trump, Fox News repeatedly cut away from a Nikki Haley speech in which the former South Carolina governor reiterated her commitment to staying in the presidential race and criticized former president Donald Trump.
Fox aired Haley’s speech uninterrupted for five minutes before the network’s 8 p.m. host Jesse Watters interjected, “All right, that was Nikki Haley not dropping out.”
One minute later, Fox resumed its coverage of Haley’s speech just in time for a reality check: “With Donald Trump, Republicans have lost almost every competitive election. We lost the Senate. We lost the House. We lost the White House. We lost in 2018. We lost in 2020, and we lost in 2022,” said Haley. Haley also noted Trump confusing her with Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) before another awkward cutaway by Watters, followed by an abrupt return to live coverage of the speech.
Fox’s spotty coverage of Haley’s New Hampshire speech comes amid a barrage of attacks on the candidate, signaling the network’s steadfast support of Trump. Fox hosts and contributors have labeled Haley as an establishment shill, dismissed her past experiences with racism as “pandering,” and suggested that she is only staying in the race for “clout.”