Newsmax was roasted for a super awkward on-screen graphic during a phone interview with former President Donald Trump—making clear that the outlet is trying to avoid any legal trouble pertaining to false claims it promoted about the 2020 presidential election.
Trump called into Newsmax on Tuesday ahead of his first debate with President Joe Biden of the 2024 election cycle. Host and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski inquired about Trump's plans for the Middle East.
Lewandowski asked:
“What do we do with Hezbollah, Sir? What’s the plan? And I know you don’t wanna give away all the strategy, but I’m sure you’ve got an idea of the way you would handle that.”
Trump responded:
“Well, it’s Hamas, it’s Hezbollah, it’s 28 different cells of terror, they call them. And once we get it going and once we’re in power – and we have to be because we’re not gonna have a country. If we don’t win this election, November 5th, if we don’t win this election, we won’t have a country left, Corey."
"We’re not gonna have a country and you know that better than anybody.”
Newsmax then did something not typically seen on the network: It proceeded to air a graphic as Trump spoke asserting that the network understands the election was both free and fair, perhaps anticipating Trump would launch into a rant about the 2020 election results.
It read:
“Please Note: Newsmax accepts the 2020 election results as legal and final."
You can hear what Trump said and see the chyron for yourself in the video below.
Trump: If we don't win this election, we won't have a country leftyoutu.be
The graphic attracted significant online attention after progressive journalist Aaron Rupar shared an image of it on X, formerly Twitter.
Newsmax
People then proceeded to mock the outlet profusely.
Trump's appearance on the network came as Newsmax filed a motion with the Superior Court of Delaware to dismiss a defamation lawsuit brought by the election and voting technology company Smartmatic. In a public statement accompanying its motion, Newsmax described Smartmatic’s suit as “meritless” and argued that it “endangers First Amendment press freedoms.”
Smartmatic initiated its lawsuit in November 2021 as part of a series of defamation actions against conservative-leaning news outlets, including the Fox Corporation and One America News Network.
The company alleges that these networks disseminated false claims about its involvement in the 2020 election, accusing Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems of manipulating the election results by shifting millions of votes from Trump to then-candidate Biden.
These baseless claims, promoted by Trump, his supporters in Congress, and conservative media, fueled the violent insurrection on January 6, 2021, the day a mob of Trump's supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on the false claims the election had been stolen.
Last year, Dominion settled its own lawsuit against Fox for $785 million, the largest known defamation settlement involving a media company in American history.