Ari Melber aired a recording of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) telling Fox host Maria Bartiromo that evidence would be required to prove claims about voter fraud in a court of law.
Bartiromo was one of the several Fox hosts and guests who falsely claimed or suggested the 2020 presidential election was rigged against then-President Donald Trump, who insists to this day it was stolen from him. On Tuesday, Fox Corp. settled a $787.5 million lawsuit with Dominion Votings Systems after the latter sued for defamation when Fox personalities cited Dominion while making their bogus election allegations.
The newly-released recording is part of another lawsuit – this one by former Fox News producer Abby Grossberg, who worked on Bartiromo’s show. Grossberg claims the network engendered a culture of sexual harassment and says the company attempted to make her and Bartiromo take a fall for the election denialism fiasco.
Fox denies wrongdoing in the case.
In the recording from November 2020, Cruz explained to Bartiromo what it would take to prove election claims in court:
It can’t just be, you know, somebody tweeted this. It’s got to be demonstrable facts that can be laid out with evidence because that’s what a court of law is gonna look to – not just an allegation but actual facts. And so, you know, I’m hopeful, you know, I’m hoping when Rudy [Giuliani] comes on the show tomorrow, he has some of those facts, and I hope the legal team continues to lay out the specific evidence, because that’s what it’s gonna take to prevail in court.
“Fact check: true,” Melber said of Cruz’s comments. “That is what it would take.”
Melber noted that in private Cruz “sounds more tethered to reality about that process than the way he acts in his public life.”
The host said Cruz’s office did not respond for comment and he then invited the senator on the show.
