Key events
Carlson firing from Fox ‘not part of $787m Dominion settlement’
Executives of Dominion Voting Systems have been talking to Axios about the $787.5m settlement it won from Fox News over lies about the 2020 election pushed by on-air celebrities.
Tucker Carlson, one of the most vocal exponents of Donald Trump’s big lie of a stolen election, became a high-profile casualty of the fallout when he was fired last week, but Dominion says his dismissal wasn’t a condition of the settlement.
And Hootan Yaghoobzadeh, co-founder of Staple Street Capital that has a controlling investment in Dominion, says neither did the company seek an on-air apology from Fox, because it would have been “worthless”.
He said the financial settlement, and damage to Fox’s reputation, were more significant:
These results are much more profound than some disingenuous apology or forced statement that would not have any credibility, or would have been disingenuous from actors that have had a track record for making statements that are disingenuous.
Attorney Stephen Shackelford, partner at Dominion’s lawyers Susman Godfrey, said he did not expect the case to be settled before trial. He criticized Fox owner Rupert Murdoch for not acting earlier, when it became clear that claims about Dominion’s voting machines changing votes for Trump to Joe Biden were lies:
He knew the truth and yet his enormous asset, Fox News, kept broadcasting the lies. The Tucker Carlson texts where it took him no time at all to figure out that the software stuff was absurd.
It was obvious to everybody that this was crazy and we expected to see internal acknowledgment that this was crazy and false. And that’s what we ended up seeing in the end.
You can read the full Axios interview here.
Kevin McCarthy jabs Biden over US debt ceiling
Good morning and happy Monday to all US politics blog readers. We woke to news that Kevin McCarthy has been taking jabs at Joe Biden during his visit to Israel, teasing the president for not talking with him about a deal to raise the debt ceiling.
The speaker lamented what he saw as Biden’s tardiness in inviting Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House, and reluctance to meet with McCarthy to negotiate a solution to concerns over the national debt.
“President Biden hasn’t talked to me about the debt ceiling for the last 80 some days so. I think he, the prime minister, might be in good company if he treats me the same way,” McCarthy told the news outlet Israel Hayom.
“If that [visit to the White House] doesn’t happen, I’ll invite the prime minister to come meet with the House.”
The partisan attack on Biden raised eyebrows because McCarthy is in Israel leading a bipartisan delegation of lawmakers to celebrate the country’s 75th anniversary. He will address Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, in short order.
Here’s what else is on our radar:
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Joe Biden will meet Ferdinand Marcos Jr, president of the Philippines, this afternoon at the White House, as the two nations seek to strengthen ties to counter growing Chinese influence in southeast Asia.
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Advice columnist E Jean Carroll returns to the witness stand on Monday to face another day of cross-examination in her lawsuit against Donald Trump for alleged rape and defamation.
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Republican senator Tim Scott of South Carolina appears ready to throw his hat into the ring for his party’s 2024 presidential nomination. He’s touting a “major announcement” on 22 May in North Charleston that could see him become the latest direct challenger to Donald Trump.
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The chief executive of Dominion Voting Systems is speaking out after his company won a $787.5m defamation settlement from Fox News over lies about the 2020 election pushed by on-air celebrities. Among the revelations in the exclusive Axios interview are that Tucker Carlson’s firing wasn’t a condition of the settlement.
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And in politics/business news, JP Morgan is to acquire most of the failed California bank First Republic, in a deal brokered by regulators in an effort to contain a series of US banking failures.
We’ll have more on all that coming up. Stick with us for what promises to be a lively day.
