*Right-wing networks Fox News and Newsmax are walking back claims of election fraud amid the threat of lawsuits for defamation.
The networks have fired off wild allegations against voting-machine and software manufacturers Smartmatic and Dominion, linking both to Joe Biden’s election win.
“Newsmax would like to clarify its news coverage and note that it has not reported as true certain claims made about these companies,” host John Tabacco said Monday. The company attributed the “opinions and claims” to “various guests, attorneys and elected officials” who appeared on the network, per Yahoo.
READ MORE: Pro-Trump Donor Sues for Return of $2.5M He Gave Group to Prove Election Fraud
Newsmax just aired this note to “clarify” its coverage of Smartmatic and Dominion. pic.twitter.com/I5XZ7CQpAk
— John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) December 21, 2020
“Newsmax has found no evidence that either Dominion or Smartmatic owns the other or has any business association with each other,” Tabacco said. “We have no evidence that Dominion uses Smartmatic’s software or vice versa. No evidence has been offered that Dominion or Smartmatic use software or reprogram software that manipulated votes in the 2020 election.”
Tabacco also noted that Smartmatic’s software was only used in Los Angeles during the 2020 election, and not in the battleground states where the alleged fraud occurred.
The fraud charges originated with former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, who took aim at Smartmatic and Dominion in news conference on Nov. 19.
“The Dominion voting systems, the Smartmatic technology software and the software that goes in other computerized voting systems here as well, not just Dominion, were created in Venezuela at the direction of Hugo Chávez to make sure he never lost an election after one constitutional referendum came out the way he did not want it to come out,” Powell said, without presenting any evidence to suport her claims.
This is very bizarre. Lou Dobbs ran a segment tonight basically debunking his own lies about Smartmatic voting machines pic.twitter.com/FDM91SPtT1
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 19, 2020
Newsmax, Fox News and One America News Network (OANN) initially backed the baseless claims of election fraud, but now with threats of defamation lawsuits looming, Newsmax has made clear that Powel’s comments were not based in fact.
“Dominion has stated that the company has no ownership, relationship with the Pelosi family, the Feinstein family, the Clinton family, Hugo Chávez or the government of Venezuela,” Tabacco said. “Neither Dominion or Smartmatic has any relationship with George Soros. Smartmatic is a U.S. company and not owned by the Venezuelan government, Hugo Chávez or any foreign official or entity.”
Smartmatic has demanded retractions by the three networks for “false and defamatory statements.”
On Friday, Fox News began airing a pretaped retraction of many of the claims made in recent weeks on the network.
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