(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., helped persuade Fox News to “move on” from former President Donald Trump, Becker News reported.
The news was leaked in a court document from the recent libel lawsuit wayed by Dominion Voting Systems over Fox News’s 2020 coverage.
According to the leaked document, Ryan, a member of Fox’s board of directors, pushed the company with the help of Fox’s head boss Rupert Murdoch and Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch.
“As a Board Member, Ryan believed that the period immediately following the 2020 Presidential Election ‘was a pretty important inflection point, not just for the company Fox, but for the country and for the conservative movement itself,’ and shared this ‘view as a fiduciary’ with Rupert and Lachlan,” the document said.
Ryan reportedly “told Rupert and Lachlan ‘that Fox News should not be spreading conspiracy theories’,” the document added.
Further, the former congressman and failed 2012 vice presidential nominee told Fox leadership that Trump was becoming increasingly unstable, and so the right thing to do was to cut ties with the former president before it hurt Fox’s business.
He reportedly texted the two bosses, suggesting that “we are entering a truly bizarre phase of this where [Trump] has actually convinced himself of this farce and will do more bizarre things to delegitimize the election,” the legal document states.
He called the moment “a key inflection point” for Fox, wherein “the right thing and the smart business thing to do line up nicely,” especially in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, uprising at the U.S. Capitol.
According to the report, Ryan was “hopeful that the events of January 6 were so shocking that it would help the conservative movement and Fox News move on.”
The story has broken amid a great deal of intrigue at Fox, which recently decided to part ways with popular prime-time Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
