Text Reveals Fox’s Bret Baier Was Concerned by Colleague’s Election Fraud Claims: ‘We Need To Fact-Check This Crap’
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
Fox News anchor Bret Baier was reportedly concerned by colleague Maria Bartiromo’s election fraud claims in 2020, warning an executive at the network, “We need to fact-check this crap,” according to newly-released text messages.
On Tuesday, the Washington Post reported on a newly-unredacted court filing by voting technology company Smartmatic – which is currently suing Fox News for defamation – revealing a number of text messages sent by Fox News hosts to colleagues at the cable television news network.
According to the filing, Baier expressed concern to Fox News Media president and executive editor Jay Wallace after he saw Bartiromo making false claims about the 2020 election.
“None of that is true as far as we can tell,” he wrote. “We need to fact-check this crap.”
Bartiromo also reportedly texted Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, urging them to “overturn” the results of the 2020 election after it was called in former President Joe Biden’s favor.
“Sidney we must keep you out there,” Bartiromo told Powell, according to the filing. “I am very worried … Please please overturn this. Bring the evidence. I know you can.”
In a message to Giuliani, she reportedly wrote, “I want you to overturn this.”
Text messages in the filing also reportedly showed U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro – then a host at Fox News – complaining about her colleague Sean Hannity being an “egomaniac.”
Recalling a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, Pirro reportedly told a friend that Hannity stormed “in like he owns the place” and asked to use the president’s “private bathroom.”
Fox News said in a statement, “The evidence shows that Smartmatic’s business and reputation were badly suffering long before any claims by President Trump’s lawyers on FOX News and that Smartmatic grossly inflated its damage claims to generate headlines and chill free speech. Now, in the aftermath of Smartmatic’s executives getting indicted for bribery charges, we are eager and ready to continue defending our press freedoms.”
