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(Reuters) – Fox News faced criticism from the campaign of US President Donald Trump and his allies on Tuesday for projecting that Arizona’s 11 electoral votes would go to Democratic challenger Joe Biden, while other news networks sought more evidence sooner. to make a call.
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The Associated Press backed Fox’s call about Arizona three hours later.
In an appearance at the White House, Trump falsely claimed that he had won reelection. The networks broadcast his comments live, but quickly corrected it, noting that a handful of key states remained too close to call since early Wednesday morning.
Some Trump supporters said there were too many votes pending for Fox to screen Arizona for Biden. Jason Miller, a senior Trump campaign adviser, said Fox’s screening came with a million ballots left to count.
“It’s too early to call an election in Arizona,” Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said on Twitter. “Election day votes are not fully reported and we have not even started counting the first ballots that were delivered at the polls.”
Fox News decision board director Arnon Mishkin defended the call on the air, saying the president “will not be able to win enough votes to assume that leadership.”
The Arizona projection could exacerbate tension between the president and the news network, controlled by press baron Rupert Murdoch, whose opinion leaders often support Trump.
In recent months, Trump has publicly criticized the network, in August tweeting: “People watching @FoxNews, in record numbers (thank you President Trump), are angry. They want an alternative now. Me too!”
According to reports in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere, Trump allies are exploring opportunities to fund a conservative media company or Trump-themed outlet.
Fox host Chris Wallace also criticized Trump’s victory claim. “This is an extremely flammable situation and the president threw a match at it,” Wallace said.
CNN’s Jake Tapper said: “Almost everything President Trump said in his victory declaration was not true.”
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“There is simply no basis for making that argument tonight,” Christie said. “There just isn’t.”
Fox was faster than the other American television networks in projecting winners in several states, calling states like Alabama, West Virginia and Mississippi hours before others.
Shortly after 2:30 am ET, it had projected Biden with 238 electoral votes and Trump with 213. CNN had also projected an advantage of Biden with 220 votes and Trump with 213.
In this year’s contest, television networks faced increased pressure to report results accurately and without unwarranted speculation.
This is the first presidential election in which the main television networks received data from different providers. Fox News and the Associated Press no longer used in-person exit polls, instead relying on online and phone polls that were aimed at reaching early voters and on Election Day. News organizations combined the survey data with real-time results tabulated by AP to help make projections.
The three news networks and CNN were part of the National Election Pool consortium, which relies on the firm Edison Research for exit polls and the results of each precinct. Reuters has a distribution agreement with the NEP for the 2020 election data.
(Reporting by Helen Coster and Kenneth Li in New York, Sheila Dang in Dallas, and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Edited by Aurora Ellis and Angus MacSwan)
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