President Donald Trump sharply criticized ABC and NBC during his nationally televised address on election integrity Thursday night after the two broadcast networks chose not to carry the speech live on their primary channels.
In a fiery portion of his roughly 25-minute address, the president accused the networks of intentionally avoiding the speech because of its focus on election security. Trump argued that the decision reflected an effort to conceal corruption and protect political opponents.
“In a rare move, NBC and ABC fake news have both said that they would not cover this speech,” Trump said. “They knew what it was about because of the fact that they don’t like the topic because they know how corrupt our system is and they don’t want to reveal it. They and others in the media are part of a plot. They want to continue this fraud for whatever reason. They want keep it going. They want to protect the radical left.”
The president then escalated his criticism by raising the possibility of revoking the networks’ broadcast licenses, a position he has expressed on multiple occasions in the past.
“You can’t have a great country without free and fair elections,” Trump said. “Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses they use our public multi-billion dollar in value airways for absolutely no money they pay nothing all we want is honesty in our elections and honesty in reporting they pay a nothing for multi billion dollar Assets. Great damage has been done to our country. Our elections were left vulnerable to being rigged and stolen. And the trust of the American people was lost. This cannot be allowed to continue.”
The president’s remarks came as he continued making election-related claims during the address. According to the article, multiple fact-checking organizations concluded that Trump made numerous false or baseless assertions throughout the speech.
While ABC and NBC chose not to air the address live on their primary broadcast networks, CBS News took a different approach.
According to the article, CBS aired most of the president’s speech, prefacing the broadcast with a disclaimer and following it with a comprehensive fact-check examining the claims made during the address.
The decision by ABC and NBC not to carry the speech live was not without precedent.
The article noted that major television networks have previously declined to air primetime addresses from presidents, including former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Although neither ABC nor NBC aired the speech on their main broadcast networks, both organizations made it available through their streaming platforms.
ABC News Live and NBC News Now each carried the president’s remarks online.
Ahead of the address, an ABC spokesperson explained the network’s coverage plans.
“ABC News will run President Trump’s speech on ABC News Live and ABC News Radio with comprehensive, anchored coverage,” the spokesperson told Mediaite before the speech. “We will also cover the speech in our regular network newscasts and, as always, our Special Report team is fully prepared to break into network programming to deliver live updates and reporting should significant developments occur.”
The comments underscored ABC’s decision to make the speech available through its digital and radio platforms while reserving its broadcast programming for regular coverage unless major developments warranted interruption.
Trump’s criticism of the networks became one of the most notable moments of the address, as he argued that free and fair elections are essential to the country and accused portions of the media of refusing to give his election integrity message a national broadcast audience.
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