Fox’s Chris Stirewalt Defends Calling AZ for Biden Amid Pushback, Warns of ‘Dark Cloud on the Horizon for Trump’

The Fox News Decision Desk was first to call Arizona for Joe Biden Tuesday night, a projection that’s good news for Democrats but one that a number of people on the Trump team objected to as being too early a call.

Axios’ Jonathan Swan reported the White House and Trump campaign are “furious” with Fox over the call.

So Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum brought on Fox News politics editor Chris Stirewalt to explain how they could call Arizona for Biden when they couldn’t make any calls on Ohio yet. (During the segment, they cut in to officially call Ohio for President Donald Trump.)

Stirewalt said they wanted to be “careful, cautious, and earnest” on Ohio.

Baier wryly remarked, “You weren’t careful, cautious, and earnest in Arizona.”

“We were too,” Stirewalt said.

Baier noted how the state might be skewed towards the Democrats only for the day-of vote to give the Republicans more of an advantage.

Stirewalt insisted, “We did every trap, we looked at every possible way that this could go, and if there were some way that it looked like Donald Trump was going to be able to bring Arizona in, we wouldn’t have called it. But the reality is that the margins are too significant, we feel very confident in the call, or otherwise we wouldn’t have made it.”

After Baier quickly called Ohio for Trump, Stirewalt said it tells a “north-south story” where Biden’s “managed to flip one Southern state” while Trump “is still holding open his northern path,” which would rely on him holding onto Georgia and North Carolina.

He emphasized that Pennsylvania “takes on supreme importance” for Trump now and how much he has riding on it.

“Chris, we haven’t called Texas yet,” Baier said.

Stirewalt said it’s too close to call (minutes later the Fox News Decision Desk did call Texas for Trump) before adding, “The very fact that we cannot call three southern states, three very traditional Republican states… the fact that those are too close to call, that is a real dark cloud on the horizon for Trump.”

He went on to add that Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin all not being called yet could end up being his “saving grace.”

You can watch above, via Fox News.