Former Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt appeared in front of the January 6 committee, which is investigating the Capitol riot, for his testimony.
Stirewalt, who was fired in 2021, told the panel that former President Donald Trump had practically no chance of winning the 2020 presidential election after failing to win Arizona and lagging in sufficiently key purple states.
The former editor elaborated on the network’s decision to call Arizona for Biden before most other news outlets did, leading to Trump being outraged at Fox News.
However, Stirewaltelt was confident in his team’s conclusion. Biden would win the state by approximately 11,000 votes out of nearly 3.4 million ballots cast. “We were able to make a call early,” Stirewalt briefed the panel, per Insider. “We were able to beat the competition.”
Stirewaltelt spoke about the extensive importance of Arizona — along with other swing states, including Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
“We had gone to pains — and I’m proud of the pains we went to to make sure that we were informing viewers that this was going to happen because the Trump campaign and the president had made it clear that they were going to try to exploit this anomaly,” Stirewalt said.
“And we knew it was going to be bigger because the percentage of early votes was higher.”
Finally, Stirewalt noted that while a recount could shift hundreds of votes, it would be a stretch for several thousand votes to alter in the contingent of swing states that Trump required to win.
“It’s always possible that you could have a truckload of ballots be found somewhere, I suppose,” Stirewalt said. “Ahead of today I thought about what are the largest margins that could ever be overturned by a recount … in a recount, you’re talking about hundreds of votes.”
“When we think about that margin … you’re talking about 1,000 votes, 1,500 votes … normally you’re talking about hundreds of votes.”
Trump needed thousands of votes to shift the outcome in his favor, which for Stirewalt was never a possibility. “He needed three of these states to change,” the former Fox News editor said. “And in order to do that, I mean, you’re better off to play the Powerball than to have that come in.”
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
