As the US moves closer to determining a winner in the presidential race, US President Donald Trump has made controversial broad allegations of voter fraud. With Trump claiming that he was being cheated, news broadcasters cut away from the press conference and gave a fact check to the claims.
During the press conference, Trump said: "If you count the legal vote, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us...I have already won many critical states... massive victories in Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, to name just a few, we won these and many other states despite historic election interference from big media, big money, and big tech... We won by historic numbers."
He referred to the ongoing polls as "phony". "We were winning in all key states by a lot, actually, and then our numbers started getting miraculously whittled away, and they would not allow legally permissible observers," Trump said.
While CNN and Fox News carried Trump's remarks in their entirety, but MSNBC took just the start of his statement, while CNBC followed suit awhile later. Similarly, three broadcast networks -- CBS, ABC, and NBC carried the press conference but cut away later.
"OK, here we are again in the unusual position of not only interrupting the president of the United States but correcting the president of the United States," said MSNBC anchor Brian Williams, as the network quickly ended its live coverage, AFP reported.
While CNN did not cut off Trump's speech, at the end CNN's Jake Tapper said, "What a sad night for the United States of America." Tapper called the scene "ugly" and "pathetic." Anderson Cooper was also quoted as saying, "That is the president of the United States. That is the most powerful person in the world. We see him like an obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun, realising his time is over."
According to news agency ANI, on NBC, Lester Holt said, "We are watching President Trump speaking live from the White House and we have to interrupt here because the president made a number of false statements including the notion that there has been fraudulent voting. There has been no evidence of that. Allegations by his campaign but his campaign spokespeople unable to provide any evidence. He also has suggested that the polls and many of which were incorrect were somehow the product of election interference."
(Inputs from Agencies)
