GA Elections Official Raffensperger Takes Victory Lap Over Fox News Settlement: ‘We Were Vindicated’

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger took a victory lap on CNN Wednesday morning, in response to the $787.5 million settlement Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems, saying that the court record “vindicated” his state’s elections as “fair and honest.”

Dominion sued Fox over twenty statements made on air on the Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network accusing their company of helping perpetrate fraud in the 2020 election, a baseless conspiracy promoted by former President Donald Trump when he lost to Joe Biden. Right as the blockbuster trial was set to begin in Delaware — a jury had been picked — the judge announced that the parties had reached a settlement.

But prior to that settlement, pre-trial discovery uncovered a shocking trove of communications between Fox’s executives and on-air talent, admitting that they knew Trump had lost the election and his claims of fraud were unfounded. In March, the judge issued a summary judgment ruling that was broadly viewed as devastating to Fox, finding that all twenty of the statements Fox made on air about Dominion were statements of fact and not protected opinion, and also that it was “CRYSTAL clear” (emphasis in original) they were all false and constituted defamation per se.

Georgia, as a previously red state that voted for Biden in 2020, was featured in many of the attacks and conspiracy theories pushed by Trump and his allies — including some aired on Fox — and Raffensperger and other state elections officials were personally targeted with harassment and death threats. Despite Trump’s vociferous criticism and endorsement of a GOP primary opponent, Raffensperger was re-elected as secretary of state last year and continues to defend his state’s elections, pointing to the multiple hand recounts that confirmed the 2020 machine count.

CNN News Central anchor John Berman introduced Raffensperger to ask him about what he thought the “main lesson” was in Fox News’ settlement of the lawsuit.

“The truth matters, and integrity counts,” replied Raffensperger.

“It took a couple of years, 2.5 years, to be vindicated,” he continued, emphasizing how they had a “verifiable paper ballot wit the new Dominion Voting System,” and conducted a “100% hand recount” that confirmed the results.

“We said since day one that we had a fair and honest election in Georgia,” he said. “So yesterday we were vindicated, as well as Dominion Voting Systems.”

Raffensperger added that the “lies that were told about the 2020 election” were “now in the court record,” that “none of those allegations were supported by the facts.”

Berman followed up to ask him if he was satisfied with Fox’s statement, which did not include an apology, and the fact that the settlement apparently would not require them to apologize or acknowledge the election lies on air.

Raffensperger again mentioned the court record. “Everything that came out is part of the court record,” he said, including “findings of fact” that the statements people were making on Fox “just were not supported” by the facts. The court record showed that Georgia had “accurate” and “fair” election machines, and those Dominion machines “accurately accounted everything.”

He vowed that he would “continue to be out there” talking to people in Georgia and across the country to help them understand “we have fair and honest elections,” especially since “95% of all ballots in America have a verifiable paper ballot,” which means any race can be confirmed with a hand recount, as Georgia did repeatedly in 2020.

“And so we’ll just continue to knock down lies, continue to stand on the truth, and we’ll just continue to walk that line of integrity,” said Raffensperger.

Watch above via CNN.