WATCH: The Moment Neil Cavuto Cut Away From Kayleigh McEnany Spreading Election Lies, Which Fox Exec Labeled a ‘Brand Threat’

Amid the vast array of revelations aired publicly by the Dominion Voting Systems court filing on Thursday evening were Fox News executives’ reaction to anchor Neil Cavuto cutting off then Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany for making baseless accusations that Democrats committed voter fraud days after the 2020 election.

“Well, well, well. I just think we have to be very clear. And she’s charging the other side is welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting. Unless she has more details to back that up. I can’t, in good countenance continue showing you this,” Cavuto said on November 9th, cutting into McEnany’s presser.

McEnany is now a host on Fox News.

“I want to make sure that maybe they do have something to back that up. But that’s an explosive charge to make. The other side is effectively rigging and cheating. If she does bring proof of that, of course we’ll take it back. So far, she has started saying right at the outset, welcoming fraud, welcoming illegal voting. Not so fast. We’ll have more after this,” Cavuto concluded before going to commercial.

The remarkable on-air moment led to fierce backlash from inside the network, according to the newly unsealed filing in Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation suit against the network.

“Fox executives also began to criticize Fox hosts for truthful reporting. On November 9, Fox anchor Neil Cavuto cut away from a White House Press Conference when Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany began making unsubstantiated allegations about election fraud,” reads the filing.

“The brand team led by Raj Shah at Fox Corporation notified senior Fox News and Fox Corporation leadership of the “Brand Threat” posed by Cavuto’s action,” the document adds.

The filing also notes that top executives, concerned about losing viewers to far-right, election-denying networks Newsmax and OAN, cited Cavuto as ammunition being used against Fox News:

Fox Executives also observed with concern the rise of Newsmax, a far-right network attempting to capitalize on viewer dissatisfaction with Fox. Prior to November 8, Fox Executive David Clark testified that Newsmax was not a credible media outlet because “their hosts were extremely one-sided, ignored the facts, they did not seem to care about telling the truth, they seemed to invest truly in conspiracy theories versus fact.”

On November 10, Scott pointed senior Fox executives to a note from analyst Kyle Goodwin on Newsmax’s rise. Fox Executive Porter Berry responded: “Just pulled up [Newsmax’s] show- and they’re hitting Cavuto….They are just whacking us. Smart on their part.” Id. Lauren Petterson added: “They definitely have a strategy across all shows to try to target and steal our viewers.” Id. Scott told Goodwin: “Keep an eye and continue to report on Newsmax.”

This specific incident serves to highlight the kind of content and fact-based reporting that clearly raised concerns among top executives that if it continued Fox News would dip in the ratings. As recently as Thursday night, the network’s top-rated host Tucker Carlson continued to spin 2020 election conspiracy theories.

“There are so many unanswered questions, some of them lingering. How, for example, did senile hermit Joe Biden get 15 million more votes than his former boss? Rock star crowd surfer Barack Obama? Results like that would seem to defy the laws of known physics and qualify instead as a miracle. Was the 2020 election a miracle? Honestly, we don’t know and we don’t expect to get an answer to it tonight,” Carlson declared.

Fox News issued a statement responding to the Dominion filing.

“There will be a lot of noise and confusion generated by Dominion and their opportunistic private equity owners, but the core of this case remains about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution and protected by New York Times v. Sullivan,” Fox said. “Dominion has mischaracterized the record, cherry-picked quotes stripped of key context, and spilled considerable ink on facts that are irrelevant under black-letter principles of defamation law.”

Watch the full clip above via Fox News on Nov. 9th, 2020.