Fox News Hosts' Texts Revealed in Lawsuit—5 Bombshells FOX NEWS ELECTION LIES FOR RATINGS!

 

“Newly unredacted filings in the $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit brought by voting technology company Smartmatic against Fox News have revealed private messages sent by Fox personalities and executives in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election.

The communications, disclosed through court filings, shed light on how some of the network's most prominent figures discussed the fraud claims they later covered on air.”

https://www.newsweek.com/fox-news-hosts-private-texts-revealed-lawsuit-bombshells-2116299

News network Newsmax files antitrust suit vs. Fox News

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/03/news-network-newsmax-antitrust-lawsuit-fox-news-00543044

Fox News Hosts' Texts Revealed in Lawsuit—5 Bombshells

Published Aug 20, 2025 

Newly unredacted filings in the $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit brought by voting technology company Smartmatic against Fox News have revealed private messages sent by Fox personalities and executives in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election.

The communications, disclosed through court filings, shed light on how some of the network's most prominent figures discussed the fraud claims they later covered on air.

Fox News has consistently denied Smartmatic's allegations. In court filings and public statements, the network has argued that it was reporting on "newsworthy" statements made by the president and his lawyers, not endorsing them.

Why It Matters

The newly disclosed text messages go to the heart of Smartmatic's defamation case against Fox News, highlighting a disconnect between the private doubts of network hosts and the on-air amplification of election fraud claims.

For Smartmatic, the contrast supports its argument that Fox acted with "actual malice" by prioritizing ratings and audience retention over verified reporting. For Fox, the lawsuit tests its defense that covering statements from a sitting president and his lawyers was protected, newsworthy journalism.

The case follows Fox's earlier $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems in 2023, which also centered on the network's coverage of election fraud claims. Unlike Dominion, Smartmatic operates primarily outside the United States, but the company alleges that Fox's broadcasts caused significant reputational and financial harm.

The outcome could have broad implications for how courts weigh press freedom against accountability for misinformation in high-stakes political coverage.

What the Texts Showed

VVVVVVVVVVVV

 

 

Fox News host Jesse Watters appears on air during the Fox News Special prior to President Trump's Joint Address to Congress. Waters was broadcasting from Fox News' D.C. Bureau on March 4, 2025 in Washington,...

  Jemal Countess/Getty Images

 

 

Jesse Watters on Ratings and "Stop the Steal"

One of the most widely cited revelations concerns Fox News host Jesse Watters. On December 5, 2020, Watters allegedly texted colleague Greg Gutfeld: "Think about how incredible our ratings would be if Fox went ALL in on STOP THE STEAL."

The comment, included in Smartmatic's filings, appears to suggest Watters was weighing the ratings implications of amplifying election fraud narratives. According to The Washington Post, Watters later testified under oath that he had seen "no evidence that Smartmatic Technology switched votes in the 2020 Election in the United States."

In another November 2020 exchange with producer Megan Albano, Watters described "an audience uprising vs. Fox like I've never seen" after the network's decision to call Arizona for Joe Biden. In separate texts to colleagues, he referred to Trump lawyer Sidney Powell as having "lost it" and being "radioactive now" because "[w]hat she is peddling is out there."

 

The now-U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. Jeanine Pirro holds a press conference at the Patrick Henry Building on August 12, 2025 in Washington.

Jeanine Pirro Texts About 'Helping Trump'

Smartmatic's filings also reference messages from other Fox figures. Jeanine Pirro, then hosting Justice with Judge Jeanine, allegedly texted in November 2020 about "helping Trump while at Fox News," according to the company's motions,

"I work so hard for the party across the country," Pirro texted then-Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, according to the court filing. "I'm the Number 1 watched show on all news cable all weekend. I work so hard for the President and party."

Bret Baier's Desire to 'Fact-Check'

Bret Baier, anchor of Special Report, expressed concerns over misinformation, the court filing said.

In a November 2020 text, Baier wrote Fox News Media president and executive editor Jay Wallace that "None of that is true as far as we can tell," when confronted with fraud allegations being promoted on-air. "We need to fact-check this crap."

Fox News Skepticism

Other hosts expressed skepticism about Powell. According to the filings, Sean Hannity referred to her assertions as "insane," while Laura Ingraham texted Hannity and Tucker Carlson that Powell was "a complete nut" and said, "no one will work with her."

Maria Bartiromo shared claims from Trump's legal team about Smartmatic with Fox colleagues while acknowledging privately that the information was "not verified." Rupert Murdoch, chairman of Fox Corporation, texted an executive in November 2020 that it was "really bad" Giuliani was allowed on air with unverified claims about Smartmatic.

Fox's Response

In court filings and public statements, Fox has argued that it was reporting on "newsworthy" statements made by the president and his lawyers, not endorsing them.

In May 2025, the Associated Press reported that a New York appeals court allowed Fox to access Smartmatic records related to a bribery case in the Philippines, which the network has argued supports its defense that Smartmatic's reputational issues predate its 2020 election coverage.

What People Are Saying

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."

Smartmatic alleges the network: "amplified false election fraud claims as a strategic response to viewer backlash" after calling Arizona for Joe Biden.

What Happens Next

The case, still moving through New York courts, will test the limits of defamation law as it intersects with political coverage and press freedom. No trial date has yet been set, but proceedings could extend into 2026 given the scope of evidence and pre-trial motions.

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Trump’s closing argument: full-throated fascism

Robert Reich Oct 17

Friends,

Last week, Trump claimed that Kamala Harris

“has imported an army of illegal alien gang members and migrant criminals from the dungeons of the third world … from prisons and jails and insane asylums and mental institutions, and she has had them resettled beautifully into your community to prey upon innocent American citizens.”

On Sunday, Trump told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo (WHO CAN STAND HER SHRILL VOICE?)  that the biggest problem on Election Day will “not be the people who have come in, who are destroying our country,” but, rather

“the people from within — we have some very bad people, sick people, radical left lunatics. And it should be easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”

On Monday, he closed his remarks to a crowd in Pennsylvania by saying his political opponents

“are so bad and frankly, they’re evil. They’re evil. What they’ve done, they’ve weaponized, they’ve weaponized our elections. They’ve done things that nobody thought was even possible.”

These are echoes of the Nazism that flourished in Europe 90 years ago.

Trump’s closing argument of the 2024 election is full-throated fascism.

Retired General Mark A. Milley, whom Trump picked to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned that former president Donald Trump is a “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country” in new comments voicing his mounting alarm at the prospect of the Republican nominee’s election to another term (according to a forthcoming book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward).

Former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney sees “no reason to disagree with [Milley’s] assessment,” adding that “The people that stopped [Trump] from his worst desires last time around won’t serve again.”

On Monday, Hillary Clinton posted that Trump’s rhetoric now is “blatantly fascist.”

Trump has always had fascist tendencies. But fascist thuggery has now become the core of his presidential campaign.

Fascism — different from and more dangerous than authoritarianism — has five elements,* all of which are now central features of what Trump is offering voters:

1. The rejection of democracy, the rule of law, and equal rights under the law, in favor of a strongman.

“I am your voice.” (Trump, 2016)

“The election was stolen.” (Trump, 2020)

“I am your warrior. I am your justice … I am your retribution.” (Trump, 2023)

Fascist “strongmen” are assumed to be above the law — above any legal or constitutional constraints — because they supposedly give voice to the people.

2. The galvanizing of popular rage against political opponents.

“The people from within [are] bad people, sick people, radical left lunatics.” (Trump, 2024)

“We will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections.” (Trump, 2023)

“Your enemies” are “media elites.” (Trump, 2016)

Fascists encourage public rage at political opponents for being the “enemy within” the country and seek revenge against them. In doing so, fascists create mass parties that often encourage violence.

3. Nationalism based on a dominant “superior” race and historic bloodlines.

“Migrants will ‘cut your throat’ … They have ‘bad genes.’” (Trump, 2024)

“Tremendous infectious disease is pouring across the border.” (Trump, 2015)

“Jewish people that vote for a Democrat [show] great disloyalty.” (Trump, 2019)

“Getting critical race theory out of our schools is … a matter of national survival.” (Trump, 2022)

Fascism manufactures fears of groups it considers genetically inferior — based on race, ethnicity, religion, or historic bloodlines — and whom it treats as subhuman. Fascists worry about disloyalty and sabotage coming from such groups within the nation. These “others” are scapegoated, excluded, expelled, sometimes even killed.

Fascists believe schools and universities must teach values that celebrate the dominant race, religion, and bloodline, and not truths that denigrate the dominant group (such as America’s history of genocide and racism).

4. Extolling brute strength and heroic warriors.

“You’ll never take back our country with weakness, you have to show strength and you have to be strong. (Trump, January 6, 2021)

Fascists assert that a nation’s well-being depends on the leadership of the strongest and elimination of the weakest. For the fascist, war and violence are means of strengthening society by culling the weak and identifying heroic warriors.

5. Disdain of women and fear of non-standard gender identities or sexual orientation.

“When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.” (Trump, 2005)

“You have to treat ’em like shit.” (Trump, 1992)

“[I will] promote positive education about the nuclear family … rather than erasing the things that make men and women different.” (Trump, 2023)

Fascism is organized around the hierarchy of male dominance. The fascist heroic warrior is male. Women are relegated to subservient roles. In fascism, anything that challenges the traditional heroic male roles of protector, provider, and controller of the family is considered a threat to the social order.

Fascism seeks to eliminate homosexual, transgender, and queer people because they are thought to challenge or weaken the heroic male warrior.

These five core elements of fascism reinforce each other:

The rejection of democracy in favor of a strongman depends on galvanizing popular rage against perceived enemies, outside the nation and within.

This popular rage draws on bigotry directed against supposedly inferior, subhuman groups, who are assumed to threaten the “purity” of the dominant group.

That bigotry is supposedly justified by social Darwinist survival of the fittest, which is thought to strengthen the race or dominant group as a whole.

The dominant group maintains itself through tests of its strength, as exemplified by heroic warriors.

Strength, violence, and the heroic warrior are centered on male dominance and the subjugation of women.

All of these five core elements find expression in Trumpian fascism. All can also be found in the current Trump Republican Party.

America’s mainstream media is by now comfortable talking and writing about Trump’s authoritarianism. But in describing what Trump is seeking to impose on America, the media should be using the term “fascism.”

—-

*These five elements appear in the works of cultural theorist Umberto Eco, historians Emilio Gentile and Ian Kershaw, political scientist Roger Griffin, and former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright.

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