The moment Fox News called the election and ended the Trump love affair

He ‘will be denied a second term’ says Martha MacCallum

Shortly after the Associated Press and CNN declared Joe Biden as the president-elect, conservative network Fox News announced that Donald Trump had lost the 2020 US election.

Fox News, often cited as Mr Trump’s favourite television network, called the election for the Democratic candidate after four days of vote-counting in several swing states.

Mr Trump and his campaign have repeatedly falsely claimed that there has been widespread voter fraud in several swing states, after he lost his lead when mail-in-ballots were counted. Postal votes were not counted in multiple states until after polls closed.

His team has issued lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Georgia, but there is no evidence to back up the claims of voter fraud.

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On Saturday morning, the network switched its coverage from Cavuto Live to the Fox News Decision Desk, where anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum broke the news of Mr Biden’s victory to its conservative base.

“The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that former vice-president Joe Biden will win Pennsylvania and Nevada, putting him over the 270 electoral votes he needs to become the 46th President of the United States,” Mr Baier said.

Ms MacCallum noted: “Keep in mind, the Trump campaign is in the midst of waging legal challenges in several states.”

However, she said: “But the path is clear for the new president-elect. Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, who stated in this process ‘I will never stop fighting for you and our nation,’ will be denied a second term.

“That has not happened since 1992 and President George H W Bush.”

Mr Trump and Fox News enjoyed a symbiotic relationship from the start of his campaign to become president in 2015, with him regularly phoning in to discuss his policies and grievances live on air over the four years of his presidency.

However, as his poll numbers started to drop amid the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Trump began to criticise the network, complaining that it showed damaging surveys and claiming that it was not doing enough to help him win reelection.

In May, he tweeted: “@FoxNews is doing nothing to help Republicans, and me, get re-elected on November 3rd. Sure, there are some truly GREAT people on Fox, but you also have some real ‘garbage’ littered all over the network, people like Dummy Juan Williams, Schumerite Chris…”

While in July he said: “@FoxNews gladly puts up the phony suppression polls as soon as they come out. We are leading in the REAL polls because people are sick & tired of watching the Democrat run cities, in all cases, falling apart. Also, now 96 per cent Approval Rating in the Republican Party. Another 2016!”

The once fruitful relationship appeared to be over last week when Mr Trump criticised the network for airing clips of former president Barack Obama campaigning for Mr Biden.

Speaking about Mr Obama, he said: “Fox puts him on more than anybody else, which is sort of shocking to me, cause Fox has changed a lot.”

“And somebody said 'what's the biggest difference between this and four years ago,' and I say, 'Fox.' It's much different,” he added.

Mr Trump’s supporters appeared to also turn on the network, as a group of them chanted “Fox News sucks!” outside a ballot-counting facility in Maricopa County, Arizona, on Thursday night after it became the first major news outlet to call the state for Mr Biden.

Vanity Fair reported that Mr Trump alongside his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, lobbied the network’s owner, Rupert Murdoch, behind the scenes to reverse the Arizona election prediction.

Despite Mr Trump reportedly berating him, Mr Murdoch refused, and other networks and publications called Arizona for Mr Biden a few hours later, signalling the end of his presidency and his love affair with Fox News.