US1 min(s) read
Published 10:28 06 Nov 2020 GMT
Several American news outlets cut off President Trump during his election address last night, as the country awaits the result of the 2020 election.
Trump's speech was aired at the time of East Coast evening newscasts after the continued counting of votes revealed his hold on Pennsylvania and Georgia was narrowing.
The 45th President of the United States said "if you count the legal votes, I easily win".
"If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us," Trump said at a press conference where he shared his first public remarks since Wednesday, per News.com.au.
Listen to President Trump's speech on the election results:
[[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8aEo4U5ZnQ]]
However, the president's speech was quickly cut off by MSNBC's Brian Williams, ABC News reports.
MSNBC cuts off Trump:
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/justinbaragona/status/1324500504597172227]]
"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," Williams said.
"There are no illegal votes that we know of, there has been no Trump victory that we know of."
Trump's speech, while more subdued than his initial reaction to the election, cited a number of alleged illegalities that he believes could impact the result of the presidential race, including "suppression" polls, mail-in voting, and fraud.
"We have to interrupt here, because the President has made a number of false statements, including the notion that there has been fraudulent voting," NBC's Lester Holt said.
"There has been no evidence of that."
Watch NBC cut off the president:
[[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ-9R1ElhLo]]
While Fox News Channel and CNN did air the address in-full, afterward CNN's Anderson Cooper said that Trump was "like an obese turtle on his back, flailing in the hot sun realizing his time was over".
Watch Cooper's scathing comments in the video below:
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Reacting to the channel's decision to cut off the president, the Edward Hardy political podcast wrote on Twitter: "MSNBC started to cover Donald Trump's statement, heard he was lying about voting and instantly cut him off.
"That's how you cover Donald Trump's remarks."
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/EdwardTHardy/status/1324516853507624961]]
After the speech was aired, ABC's White House correspondent, Jonathan Karl, told viewers that there was no evidence of illegal votes in this year's election.
"What he seems to be frustrated by is… that it takes time to count votes," Karl said.
"It's always taken time to count votes. But especially in this election."
USA Today also stopped its coverage of the president's speech, removing it from its platforms.
The website's editor, Nicole Carroll, issued a statement on social media that read: "Our job is to spread truth - not unfounded conspiracies."
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/USATODAY/status/1324521039595003904]]
Meanwhile, while CNN did air the president's speech, the channel placed a chyron under him that read: "Without any evidence, Trump says he's being cheated."
When the speech ended, anchor Jake Tapper said President Trump had told "lie after lie after lie".
"What a sad night for the United States of America to hear their President say that, to falsely accuse people of trying to steal the election, to try to attack democracy in that way with this feast of falsehoods," Tapper added.
