Laura Ingraham told viewers that Biden will be the next president, and suggested that anyone who says otherwise is lying

Ashley Collman
·4 min read
Laura Ingraham
Laura Ingraham on her show on November 23, 2020. She said that President Donald Trump's election challenges will likely fail. Fox News

  • On Monday night, Laura Ingraham told her Fox News show it was highly unlikely that President Donald Trump would win his legal challenges to the 2020 election results and secure a second term.

  • "Unless the legal situation changes in a dramatic, and frankly, an unlikely manner, Joe Biden will be inaugurated on January 20," Ingraham said. 

  • She added: "If I told you there was an excellent, phenomenal chance that the Supreme Court was going to step in and deliver a victory to President Trump, I would be lying to you."

  • Ingraham appears to be the first top Fox News pundit to speak so directly about Biden's win. Major news outlets — including Fox News — called the election for President-elect Joe Biden on November 7.

  • Trump has refused to concede the race. However, on Monday, he allowed his administration to start the transition process to Biden's team.

  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Fox News' Laura Ingraham accepted President-elect Joe Biden's electoral victory in her strongest terms yet, telling viewers on Monday night that President Donald Trump's legal challenges to the election result were likely to fail, and that Biden would in all likelihood become the next president.

"As unpleasant and disappointing as these past three weeks have been to so many of us, as much as we wish things were different, this is where things stand tonight," she said.

"Now, legal challenges continue in a number of states. Serious questions about vote counting, poll-watcher access, are outstanding. But unless the legal situation changes in a dramatic, and frankly an unlikely manner, Joe Biden will be inaugurated on January 20."

The remarks came more than two weeks after major news networks — including Fox News — called the election for Biden.

Ingraham made sure to condition her comments, saying she still supports the president's right to challenge the election results in the courts, but that the challenges are unlikely to change the results.

"Now, to say this does not mean I don't think that this election was rife with problems and potential fraud. And to say this does not constitute being a sellout to the conservative populist movement I've been fighting for here for — I don't know — 25 years. And it does not mean that I disagree at all with the president's right and obligation to pursue all legitimate legal challenges to this outcome," she said.

"To say this constitutes living in reality," she added. "And if I offered you a false reality, if I told you there was an excellent, phenomenal chance that the Supreme Court was going to step in and deliver a victory to President Trump, I would be lying to you."

Ingraham first signaled her acceptance of a Trump loss on November 6 — before most news networks had projected Biden to win — when she told her show there could be an "unfavorable outcome" in the 2020 election, and that Trump should accept his defeat with "grace and composure" if he lost.

However, Ingraham has also consistently backed Trump's allegations of voter fraud. She was recently criticized and mocked for her interview with an unnamed Nevada poll worker who claimed to see ballots being filled out by the Biden campaign, without providing photographic evidence, according to the Independent.

Ingraham appears to be the first of the major Fox News pundits to speak so directly about Biden's win.

On his Monday night show, Tucker Carlson did not mention Biden's electoral victory, and instead railed against "not fair" mail-in voting and alleged that the election had been "rigged towards one candidate," according to The Washington Post.

Carlson did, however, question Trump's then-lawyer Sidney Powell for failing to provide evidence for her voter-fraud claims, prompting attacks from the president's loyalists.

Sean Hannity didn't appear to have a new show on Monday, but his broadcasts after the election have included pushing a conspiracy about how a "media mob" conspired to paint Biden in the best light and a rant about how Socialist Democrats were plotting to push Biden as far left as possible.

Trump has also repeatedly refused to concede. However, on Monday, he finally allowed his administration to start transitioning to Biden's team.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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