Fox News anchors allow former President Donald Trump to continue lying about the 2020 election

In a call-in to discuss the death of Rush Limbaugh, Trump claims Democrats “would’ve had riots” — in the wake of an actual riot by his own supporters — and praises “great people” among Republican supporters

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

From the February 17, 2021, edition of Fox News’ America Reports with John Roberts

BILL HEMMER (CO-ANCHOR): Rush Limbaugh, the iconic conservative radio host, dead at the age of 70, succumbing to lung cancer after a 12-and-a-half month battle. By telephone, former President Trump continues with us today. And sir, thank you again for your time. I was trying to jump in there a moment ago, I apologize for that, Harris [Faulkner]. What did Rush Limbaugh tell you after the election of November 3? What were those conversations like?

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, Rush thought we won — and so do I, by the way, I think we won by — substantially. And Rush thought we won, and he thought it was over at 10 o'clock, 10:30, it was over, and a lot of other people feel that way, too. But Rush felt that way strongly, and many people do. Many professionals do. And I don't think that could have happened to a Democrat. You would've had — you would've had riots going all over the place if that happened to a Democrat. We don't have the same support in the — at certain levels of the Republican system — but we have a great people, as Republicans. But Rush felt we won. And he was quite angry about it, quite angry.

…

HARRIS FAULKNER (CO-ANCHOR): Did he say to you what role he would like to see you play next?

TRUMP: Well, we didn't talk too much about that. I didn't want to talk about that too much, either, because I was disappointed by voter tabulation. I think it's disgraceful what happened. We were like a third-world country on election night, with the closing down of the centers and all of the things that happened late in the evening. And he was furious at it, and many people are furious. You don't know how angry this country is. And people were furious. But he was somebody, at the same time, you know, he thinks about the past but he projects out to the future. That was Rush, he wants to learn from the past and get things fixed. But he was somebody that really felt that was a very important victory for us — we should've had it, that we did have it — but he was somebody that felt that was a very important election, and I did, too. I mean, I did, too. You see what's happening now.

During his final weeks of broadcasts, Rush Limbaugh had spread baseless conspiracy theories about the voting machines used in the 2020 election. (One voting systems company, Smartmatic, is now suing Fox News over its role in spreading those debunked theories.)

Limbaugh had also compared the attack against the U.S. Capitol by Trump’s supporters on January 6 to the American Revolution, before backtracking to allege that the mob had “undoubtedly” included “some antifa Democrat-sponsored instigators.”