Fox News' Brian Kilmeade said that Donald Trump needs to "learn to lose" rather than continuing to falsely claim the 2020 election was rigged against him.
During an appearance on Media Buzz on Sunday, host Howard Kurtz asked Kilmeade for his thoughts on "the heart of the outrage" of media coverage of the one-year anniversary of the January 6 attack being Trump's insistence he only lost the last election to President Joe Biden because of widespread voter fraud.
In response, Kilmeade said that Trump has still not proven his claims more than 14 months since the last election took place.
"In life, you have to learn to lose. Hillary Clinton has to learn that, Al Gore pretty much did learn that, Stacey Abrams didn't learn that," Kilmeade said in reference to the 2016 and 2000 Democratic presidential nominees and the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate who refused to concede her loss to Republican Brian Kemp after alleging voter suppression.
"If you did, in fact, get screwed out of this election, put together an A-team list of lawyers, not the ones we witnessed, show us the districts and show us how," Kilmeade said.
Kilmeade, one of the hosts of Fox & Friends, went on to say Andrew Jackson had "lost a controversial election despite winning the popular vote" before he cut a "backroom deal" to become secretary of state. Kilmeade said after doing this, Jackson became "more powerful after being president" then when he was president.
"In life, we have to learn to lose, Democrats and Republicans," Kilmeade said.
Kurtz then asked if it is "anti-Trump" to state that the former president is wrong to say there was widespread voter fraud in the last election.
"It isn't," Kilmeade replied. "It doesn't help him, but Donald Trump has defied everybody again. It was the worst day in Republican history. They lost two Senate elections and lost the Senate in Georgia, the next day you have the raid on the Capitol.
"That hurt Donald Trump as much as anything since, so they think he was sidelined. One year later, he's as powerful as ever despite [not] being on social media and he's the number one contender to have the nomination next time when he comes back."
The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack previously revealed that Kilmeade was one of several Fox News personalities who messaged Trump's ex-chief of staff Mark Meadows on the day of the attack to try and persuade the former president to get his supporters to end the riot.
"Please get him on TV. Destroying everything you have accomplished," Kilmeade wrote to Meadows.
Trump has been contacted for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
