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Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, last night, additional new evidence came to light that Rupert Murdoch and FOX News knew Donald Trump lied about the 2020 election. Yet they allowed the Big Lie to air on their network all the same. More and more evidence keeps pouring out that these are the undisputed facts.
I have never heard of a news organization push a story with such intensity while acknowledging, very candidly behind the scenes, that what they were peddling was total balderdash.
In one email just revealed last night, Mr. Murdoch admitted sometime after January 6 that ``maybe Sean and Laura went too far,'' referring to prime-time hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham.
In another instance published in last night's Washington Post, Mr. Murdoch speculated that after losing the election, Donald Trump was going ``increasingly mad.'' Murdoch said Donald Trump is going ``increasingly mad,'' and then Murdoch worried that President Trump's allies' plans to overturn swing State results ``sound ridiculous'' and could lead to ``riots like never before.''
Murdoch, the head of FOX News, allowing these lies to continue, worries that they could lead to ``riots like never before.''
But it is not enough for Mr. Murdoch to express doubt and regret in private, which is continuing to be documented, because today, after he makes these expressions of doubt and regret and is very pejorative of his own newscast and newscasters, the Big Lie still has a home at FOX News, Mr. Murdoch's station--news network. Just look at Carlson's segments this week.
Members on the Republican side of the aisle should drop the pretenses and say it plainly: FOX News lied to the country about the 2020 elections and, in doing so, eroded the public's trust in American democracy. For their own sake and for the sake of the country, Mr. Murdoch and FOX News leadership should put a halt to the spread of the Big Lie on their network.
This is about preserving trust in our 200-year-old system of government. When enough people believe elections are not on the level, that is the death knell of democracy.
Of course, the fault also lies with the person who shared Capitol security footage with FOX News to begin with-- Speaker McCarthy. Speaker McCarthy has held a gavel for less than 3 months and already he has done more than any party leader in Congress to enable the spread of Donald Trump's Big Lie.
While the Speaker can't undo his decision to share security footage with FOX News, he should denounce them for the way that FOX News manipulated that footage to rewrite the history of January 6. The Speaker should not delay because his decision to share sensitive security footage with FOX News has made our democracy weaker because millions--millions--of people, sadly, believe Mr. Carlson when he says January 6 was a legitimate protest. And the more people who believe that January 6 was legitimate, the more they will accept the lie that Donald Trump won the 2020 election.
Bewilderingly--bewilderingly--Speaker McCarthy said yesterday that he didn't regret his decision to share Capitol security footage. He said he didn't see what FOX News aired; that people can make their own conclusions. Then, for some reason, he started pointing the finger at CNN.
For Speaker McCarthy not even to watch the spoiled fruits of his labor, it shows a callousness and unconcern far beneath the dignity of his office.
Speaker McCarthy, rescue your office from that indignity by finally speaking out. If you are dealing with a burglar, Speaker McCarthy, the last thing you should do is give them your house keys. If you are dealing with an arsonist, Speaker McCarthy, the last thing you should do is give them a box of matches. And if you are dealing with FOX News, Speaker McCarthy, the last thing you should do is give them security footage of January 6 because, as we have seen, their hosts will lie to the American people--baldly lie about what happened.
So, once again, Speaker McCarthy can't undo his decision to share security footage with FOX, but he should at least denounce FOX News for the way they have manipulated the footage to rewrite the history of January 6.
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