Bret Baier wanted to rescind Fox News' decision to call Arizona for Biden in 2020 and wrote in an...

[demmiblue]

Bret Baier wanted to rescind Fox News' decision to call Arizona for Biden in 2020 and wrote in an email, 'The Trump campaign was really pissed,' book says

Fox News anchor Bret Baier "was ready to give into" Trump White House pressure in 2020 after the news organization decided on election night to call Arizona for Joe Biden ahead of other networks, according to the new book "The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021."

Baier, the lead Fox evening news anchor, wanted to rescind the Arizona call, wrote New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker and New Yorker staff writer and CNN global affairs analyst Susan Glasser.

"'The Trump campaign was really pissed,' he wrote in an email to Jay Wallace, the president and executive editor at Fox," according to the book set for publication on Tuesday. "'This situation is getting uncomfortable. Really uncomfortable. I keep having to defend this on air.'"

The authors wrote that journalists on the Decision Desk thought there was "no serious question about Arizona," but Baier, in his email, accused them of "'holding on for pride,'" the book says.

"'It's hurting us,'" he wrote, according to the book. "'The sooner we pull it — even if it gives us major egg — and we put it back in his column the better we are in my opinion.'"

https://www.businessinsider.com/bret-baier-fox-news-arizona-trump-campiagn-biden-2020-2022-9

[bucolic_frolic]

1. NewsGods determine events, journalists report on reality

Just another stinking MAGAt

[badhair77]

2. So much for the myth that Baier is the "real journalist" at Fox.

[yellowcanine]

3. Dickhead. Baier's job was to report the call for Arizona and the Trump campaign's objections.

The news anchor reports news. Others make the news.

[Zambero]

4. Brett intimidates very easily

So Dear Leader was "really pissed", and that's "really hurting us". So what's a very uncomfortable reality-averting news anchor to do? Simply let the toddler tantrum-thrower have his way, of course. In the best journalistic tradition, CAVE, and quick! Just "Put it back in his column". One slight problem -- It was never there to begin with!

[Renew Deal]

5. Calling AZ for Biden certainly helped him.

If I remember correctly, Fox called it before most if not all others. They ended up being right. I can’t say if it was premature.

[Walleye]

6. I clearly remember when Florida was pulled from Gore's column on election night

It was after W made an 8 PM appearance on TV, unprecedented for a candidate on election night, and said he was sure Florida was his because his brother, the governor, told him so. Geez they’ve been at this shit for a long damn time

[Mr. Sparkle]

7. Bret Baier is not an anchor or a newsman

He is an actor, playing the part of a newsman on a propaganda channel

[tishaLA]

8. "straight news guy," huh?

I remember when FNC wanted to land a Democratic primary debate in 2020 and they held up Baier and Martha McCallum as examples of their totally fair, unbiased journalists LOL.

[gratuitous]

9. Fox called Arizona for Biden early

Every other outlet stalled and held off calling Arizona, even as the numbers became clearer and clearer that Arizona was going for Biden. I particularly recall NBC fum-ferring around, resisting the news based on all kinds of specious excuses. I was shocked that Fox had called Arizona days before the rest of the media outlets would get on board.

Were the other networks teaching Fox a little lesson on what it's like to incur the former guy's wrath, or were they too unnecessarily circumspect to avoid drawing fire, too? We'll never know, but for once, Fox scooped the nation on news that inconvenienced their nitwit base and actually stuck with their call in defiance of that fool.

[Johnny2X2X]

13. They saw they were getting ratings

The whole thing was ridiculous. We knew Biden won the day after the election, but the networks refused to call it for him because they wanted people glued to their TVs for days on end.

And this coming out about FOX is not surprising, but is absolutely outrageous. It's clear Baier thought it was the network's job to help Trump steal the election. Not to just be biased, not to just be cautious, but to actually be part of a machine that was going to overthrow the election. Sickening.

[Midnight Writer]

10. He wasn't worried about pissing off anyone with his rude, argumentative Obama interview.

He knows which side of his bread is buttered.

[Torchlight]

11. Fox News, where comfort and opinion trumps accuracy.

Every single time.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

12. If only they had done so Trump would've won 🤣