The hosts of “Fox and Friends” are pushing unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud ahead of California’s recall election, which will determine whether incumbent Governor Gavin Newsom will remain in office amid conservative backlash against Covid-19 restrictions.
“The degradation of that state under his [Newsom’s] leadership is really quite apparent,” one of the hosts said during an interview with Larry Elder, Newsom’s Republican opponent, later adding, “I’m worried about fraud… You know, when they found that meth addict with 300 ballots in the trunk of his car.”
She then pitched to Elder: “Are you hearing any other stories like that and how worried are you that that might be part of this election?”
Fox & Friends is leaning hard into preemptive allegations that the California recall election will be tainted by fraud pic.twitter.com/h4adPe13pA
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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 13, 2021
The comments referred to a recent report that a man had been arrested in Torrance, California after having been found passed out in a car that contained drugs, a firearm, multiple driver’s licenses, and 300 recall ballots.
The man “was arrested on suspicion of a number of offenses, including weapons violations, narcotics and forgery violations,” according to a report from KTLA.
Police have pointed out that this was an “isolated incident” and not indicative of widespread voter fraud.
“Investigators are trying to figure out how the election ballots ended up in the suspect’s vehicle and what their intent was in having them,†police officials said in a statement. “This is an isolated incident and is not related to any additional thefts of election ballots.â€
California’s recall election is tomorrow and Republicans have “struggled to expand the recall’s appeal,” according to a report from The New York Times, which pointed out that “California Republicans lack a single, unifying leader who has the ability to appeal beyond the hard right” and that “they have been unable to convert the populist anger at the governor over his handling of the pandemic into a broad-based backlash from voters who are right, left and somewhere in between.”
The majority of Californians are opposed to recalling Newsom, according to a recent poll conducted by the University of California-Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies for the Los Angeles Times, which found that 60% of California voters would reject recalling Newsom compared to just 39% who say they support removing Newsom from office.
Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.
