NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – Steve Bannon, former top adviser to Donald Trump, launched a flurry of attacks on the Fox News Channel and its boss Rupert Murdoch on Friday – in a sign of rising tensions between the former president's political network and Murdoch's conservative media empire . .
“Donald J. They have been underestimating Trump for a long time.
“Murder, you guessed it, Trump wouldn't be president,” Bannon added, ending his diatribe. "Well, we thought you wouldn't have a net. Because we were going to fight you every step of the way."
Australian-born Bannon called Murdoch and his family "a bunch of outsiders" and called hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin and Senate leader Mitch McConnell enemies of the Make America Great Again movement.
The biggest problems arose when Trump and his allies criticized Fox News for its coverage of the 2020 election and the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
Meanwhile, the Murdoch-owned cable network News Corp. and other media properties have featured Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — Trump's biggest challenger for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, according to polls — in recent coverage . As part of his ongoing writing tour, DeSantis sat down for interviews with the New York Post and the Times of London, both owned by Murdoch, as well as Laura Ingraham, Mark Levine, Jesse Waters and a Fox News anchor. DeSants' memoir Fox & Friends is published by Murdoch's HarperCollins.
“Brother Murdoch, while you're at it, no more low-key anti-Trump interviews,” Bannon said on Friday.
A Fox News spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Fox Nation, the streaming platform, has sponsored and broadcast CPAC events before, but not this year.
Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison in October after being found guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to accept a subpoena from the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attacks. This sentence was postponed because he appealed his sentence.
Bannon's comments come just days after Dominion Voting Systems released court documents in a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corp. The documents reveal several private communications between Fox News hosts and executives after the 2020 election, when they didn't believe the president's fraudulent claims and allowed them to go on the air. Dominion is suing Fox for publishing allegedly unsubstantiated allegations by Trump allies.
Murdoch has seen little evidence to support Trump's allegations and has called some of them "delinquent and harmful." In an email, he suggested that Trump might be a "sick loser." Murdoch also admitted in his testimony that some Fox News anchors, including Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs and Maria Patiromo, have done more than provide a forum for baseless allegations of voter fraud. Murdoch said in an email after the Capitol attack on January 6 of this year that Fox News wants to "dehumanize Trump" and that it is "moving as quickly as possible."
“We have to lead our audience… It's not as easy as it sounds,” he explained in the memo.
Fox News defended its coverage, calling Dominion's lawsuit "baseless".
"Read the statement," Bannon said. "They are afraid, contempt and contempt for you."
Bannon criticized the cable network for calling Democrat Joe Biden ahead of the Arizona primary vote on election night in 2020 and for not following the 2024 campaign closely.
“They don't cover it live for 20 minutes,” Bannon said in a November speech about Trump's announcement. Then they say, "If there's something interesting, we'll cut it," and they go to a panel discussion and discussion. Memo to Fox Senior Management: News matters when Donald J. Trump speaks.
Trump belittled Fox News' leadership of the social reality platform last week, saying Murdoch was "throwing an anchor under the table, which kills the problem and pisses the public off, which pisses the public off again." and Murdoch in the "2020 presidential election. Ironically". "La Défense apologizes to its viewers and readers."
Trump said the election was rigged! Reviews of the 2020 election, including manual recounts and risk mitigation audits, confirmed the election results in all swing states, and Trump's efforts to overturn the results have been rejected numerous times by the courts.
“If Rupert Murdoch truly believes that the 2020 presidential election was not rigged or rigged despite overwhelming evidence, then he and his team at MAGA Hating Globalist RINOS need to exit the news industry ASAP. Because they are helping and abetting Destroying America with fake news.” "Some of the most talented and experienced hosts on Fox News really tease and make fun of him. It's wrong. He shouldn't be admired, praised, scolded, and condemned!!!"
This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com