Critics still think the only thing Fox News is spinning is a web of lies — despite an explanation from one of the network’s hosts.
During election night coverage on Tuesday, anchor Bret Baier was caught on a hot mic making a seemingly damning comment while a colleague discussed the popularity of Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.
As national correspondent Garrett Tenney was reporting on the U.S. Senate race in the state and telling Baier and his co-host Martha MacCallum how excited voters were about El-Sayed — who won his race — Baier was heard saying: “OK, can we do a spin? On the races—”
Baier then immediately realized he was on a hot mic.
“Oh, sorry, Garrett. I guess we’re on TV now,” Baier said as MacCallum and Tenney laughed.
“That’s what happens at 11:24 [p.m.],” Baier joked.
“Exactly,” MacCallum said.
Aaron Rupar, who frequently publishes political clips on X, posted a video of Baier’s comments, which quickly went viral.
And Fox News critics on social media immediately interpreted Baier’s request for “spin” a certain way.
About an hour after Rupar posted, Baier jumped onto X, retweeted Rupar’s clip and tried to shut down the chatter.
“That was to [co-anchor] Bill Hemmer,” Baier wrote. “A spin on the board with Bill to see the various races that were outstanding. Thanks.”
Apparently, Fox News hosts spun a wheel in the studio during the broadcast to figure out which race to talk about next.
Yet Baier’s attempt to clarify may have come off as confusing to X users who didn’t watch Fox News’ election night coverage — and critics still weren’t buying it.
The next morning, Rupar published an update to his clip of Baier in the comments section of his original post — and offered a tad more clarity.
“Fox reached out to me in response to this tweet 👆and clarified that by “spin,” what Bret Baier was referring to was taking a spin on their big board of race calls,” Rupar wrote in his follow-up. “Not ‘spinning’ in the sense of pushing a narrative.”
Along with the explanation Rupar got from Fox News, he also published a clip from earlier in the network’s election night coverage in which “Baier used similar language” while asking Hemmer to spin their wheel of races.
Although some critics felt this explanation made more sense and thanked Rupar for the update, others were still pretty skeptical.