Bret Baier and Chris Wallace Both Refer to Biden as Possible ‘President-Elect,’ Despite CNN Reporting Fox News Would Ban the Term
Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Chris Wallace each referred to former Vice President Joe Biden as the possible next “president-elect” Friday morning, which, given the recent electoral developments in the Pennsylvania and Georgia would be no big deal.
But the comments by Baier and Wallace fly in the face of a Friday morning CNN report of internal Fox News memos that directed on-air talent to refrain from calling Biden “president-elect.” Fox News denied the existence of any network-wide editorial guidance or memo in a statement.
Stelter went on CNN Friday morning to discuss with Jake Tapper the alleged memos obtained from Fox News, saying when the network won’t identify Biden as president-elect even after he officially crosses the 270 electoral vote threshold:
These memos direct Fox stars…to avoid language like ‘president-elect’ because of the president’s legal challenges. These are long-shot legal challenges…but Fox is taking these challenges very seriously, showing deference to the president. After 25,000 false and misleading claims from this president, Fox still assumes he’s telling the truth.
Baier’s comments came as Bill Hemmer was illustrating Joe Biden’s clear lead in the current electoral tally, which seems to show his imminent projection as the winner of the election. “If you make a call for Joe Biden at 264, the math is pretty obvious in Pennsylvania it would give him 284,” Hemmer said, to which Baier noted, “And he would become the president-elect of the United States.”
Wallace comments came in a tease for Fox News Sunday, in which he theorized which topics will be on his rundown. “You tell me what will happen in the world,” he said to Sandra Smith. “We may be talking about Biden as the president-elect. We may be talking about major court challenges. My guess is we’ll talk about all of it.”
CNN has not yet shared the actual internal memo that Fox News denies exists, though the report quotes two different memos. There is a decent chance, in fact, that Baier and Wallace’s comments were in direct response to the CNN report, but that is something we may never know.
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