Tapper laughs reading Fox News settlement statement: ‘Difficult to say with a straight face’

CNN host Jake Tapper laughed while reading Fox News’s statement on the settlement it reached on Tuesday with Dominion Voting Systems over its coverage of former President Trump’s false claims of voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election. 

“I’m sorry. This is going to be difficult to say with a straight face,” Tapper said during his show “The Lead” while reading Fox’s statement. 

In making the announcement of the settlement, the network said, “We are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute with Dominion Voting Systems. We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. This settlement reflects FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards. We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues.” 

Tapper smirked while saying “dispute” in the first line and repeated the word again. He also cracked a smile and a small laugh and apologized before he finished reading the last sentence of the statement. 

He called the settlement, which was reached at about $787.5 million, one of the “most embarrassing moments” in journalism history. Tapper said the amount is an “unbelievable figure.” 

“Fox, trying to put a positive face on what can only be interpreted as one of the ugliest and most embarrassing moments in the history of journalism,” he said before reading Fox’s statement. 

Tapper quoted a lawyer for Dominion as saying that the deal represents “a ringing endorsement for truth and for democracy.” 

Fox mocked CNN’s viewership in response to Tapper’s remarks.

“We can’t look at CNN’s awful ratings without laughing and we’re sure Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders feel the same way,” the network said in a statement to The Hill.

Dominion sued Fox in 2021, alleging that the network knowingly aired false information that Trump and his allies were saying about the company’s voting machine software. 

Released emails and texts sent by Fox hosts and executives showed them expressing doubts about the validity of Trump’s claims about voter fraud.

—Updated at 6:16 p.m.