Fox News Anchor Adds His Two Cents

by Sharon Rondeau

(Jul. 21, 2021) — At approximately 2:33 p.m. EDT following a press conference held by House Republicans responding to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s rejection Wednesday of two congressmen to serve on the “select committee” to investigate the January 6 incursion into the U.S. Capitol, Fox News anchor John Roberts termed Reps. Jim Banks (R-IN) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) “controversial” for having “objected to the certification of the electoral votes” on January 6, 2021.

Roberts was recapping the purpose of the presser, which included House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s declaration that no Speaker in the history of the institution had ever rejected proposed members to serve on any committee. Roberts ostensibly offered the comment as a possible explanation of Pelosi’s rejection of Banks and Jordan.

Pelosi herself agreed that her refusal to permit the two to serve is “unprecedented,” citing “the unprecedented nature of January 6th.”

“The House speaker said she would accept McCarthy’s other nominees: Reps. Rodney Davis of Illinois, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota and Troy Nehls of Texas,” NPR reported. “Banks, Jordan and Nehls voted against certifying the election, the proceedings that the rioters disrupted.”

Unlike NPR, Roberts did not point out that Nehls, too, had voiced an objection to the vote count.

Assuming Pelosi does not change her stance, House Republicans will not participate in her probe, McCarthy said, but rather, will conduct their own investigation to arrive at “the truth” of what initiated the events of January 6 which interrupted the electoral vote count, rendered an Air Force veteran dead, and appeared to render Capitol Police unprepared.

Pelosi was reportedly aware of who the Republican nominees to the committee were to be through a Tuesday morning phone call with McCarthy.

Roberts made headlines last fall when he demanded that then-White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, on Trump’s behalf, “denounce white supremacy” during her daily press conference. Following that, he spouted to then-“Outnumbered” co-host Melissa Francis, “I’m tired of it” in reference to those he said were “blaming the media” for what he believed was Trump’s failure to answer the question adequately.

Later in Wednesday’s broadcast, Roberts’s co-anchor, Shannon Bream, argued that others, and namely, Democrats, have objected to electoral votes during the joint session of Congress in other years.

Banks, Jordan, Reps. Elise Stefanik and Louis Gohmert were among those in the House who lodged objections as then-Vice President Mike Pence read the roll call of votes beginning just after 1:00 p.m. on January 6. U.S. Senators who objected included newly-elected Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), whose home and family members were harassed after Hawley announced his intent to object.

Those challenging the electoral vote count expressed concerns over the way in which Pennsylvania and Arizona conducted their elections amid numerous reports of fraudulent ballots and violations of state law.

Ultimately, at approximately 3:45 a.m. January 7, Congress affirmed Biden as president-elect.

“The objecting members point to baseless allegations of voting irregularities as well as claims that large proportions of their constituents believe the election was stolen as the basis for their stance,” Vox reported on January 7. “However, these Republicans have ignored their own role in fomenting conspiracy theories around the election. Their concerns also fail to account for the overwhelming evidence that there was no widespread voter fraud.”

A forensic election audit conducted in Maricopa County, AZ between late April and late June thus far has revealed more than 74,000 mail-in ballots returned which were never dispatched, according to a hearing held last week by Arizona Senate President Karen Fann. Arizona’s 11 electoral votes were awarded to Biden after he was determined to have won over Trump by fewer than 12,000 votes.

As many viewers likely recall, Fox News called Arizona for Biden long before all the votes in Maricopa County, the state’s most populous, were counted.

Pennsylvania, which Biden reportedly won by approximately 80,000 votes, is also undergoing a forensic election audit in at least three counties.

Trump has increasingly said in his public remarks that proof of his claimed “landslide” victory last year will soon become evident.