Ex-Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt testified at Monday's Jan. 6 hearing, broadcast on Fox News

Monday's televised hearings from the House Jan. 6 committee detailed how former President Donald Trump continued to falsely claim he was denied a second term due to election fraud despite the vast majority of his inner circle telling him otherwise.
The committee played video testimony of Trump's campaign leaders, family members, lawyers, and former Attorney General William Barr — all Republicans — urging Trump to drop his fraud conspiracies and advising against trying to declare victory on Election Night. "If he really believes this stuff," Barr said, "he's become detached from reality."
Fox News, which did not broadcast last week's live hearing but did air Monday's testimony, played a small but significant role Monday as well. The first live witness was Chris Stirewalt, who was fired as Fox News political editor two months after playing a leading role in the channel's momentous early call that President Biden won Arizona. That call, especially coming from Fox News, caused "anger and disappointment" in the White House, Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller testified.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Stirewalt explained how Fox News' decision desk crushed its competition by calling Arizona — correctly — a week before other networks, and how his team had tried to defuse Trump's attempts to exploit the "red mirage."
Sitrewalt told NRP's David Folkenflik after the hearing that the baffling furor his team's Arizona call caused at Fox News showed him "how much television — the perceptions of events of television as entertainment, news as entertainment, and treating it like a sport — had really damaged the capacity of Americans to be good citizens in a republic because they confused the TV show with the real thing."
Folkenflik asked Stirewalt how Fox News viewers will understand the committee's hearings, and Stirewalt said he cares "less about what Fox viewers or Republicans or whomever care happened in 2020," and more about 2024 and whether "we entering a new chapter in American history where we gradually fall apart because we can't even agree on the results of an election?"
CNN media analyst Bill Carter said Fox News is finding "it's getting harder to dismiss" the Jan. 6 hearings. Stirewalt, he said, "was employed by Fox News, and his job was to call various states," and "now they have to argue, 'Well, he was right but we didn't like it anyway, and we fired him for that,'" which "says a lot about your approach to news."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Gavin Newsom mulls California redistricting to counter Texas gerrymandering
TALKING POINTS A controversial plan has become a major flashpoint among Democrats struggling for traction in the Trump era
-
6 perfect gifts for travel lovers
The Week Recommends The best trip is the one that lives on and on
-
How can you get the maximum Social Security retirement benefit?
the explainer These steps can help boost the Social Security amount you receive
-
President diagnosed with 'chronic venous insufficiency'
Speed Read The vein disorder has given Trump swollen ankles and visible bruising on his hands
-
'Bawdy' Trump letter supercharges Epstein scandal
Speed Read The Wall Street Journal published details of Trump's alleged birthday letter to Epstein
-
Fed chair Powell in Trump's firing line
Speed Read The president considers removing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell
-
Trump trashes supporters over Epstein files
speed read The president lashed out on social media following criticism of his administration's Jeffrey Epstein investigation
-
Judge nixes wiping medical debt from credit checks
Speed Read Medical debt can now be included in credit reports
-
Grijalva wins Democratic special primary for Arizona
Speed Read She will go up against Republican nominee Daniel Butierez to fill the US House seat her father held until his death earlier this year
-
US inflation jumps as Trump tariffs 'bite'
Speed Read Consumer prices are climbing and the inflation rate rose to its highest level in four months
-
SCOTUS greenlights mass DOE firings
Speed Read The Supreme Court will allow the Trump administration to further shrink the Education Department