During the live segment, Cuccia inaccurately said Donald Trump was “rightly and duly elected” in the 2020 election, which he in fact lost to President Joe Biden by millions of votes.
She then stated the Biden administration was “very guilty” of suppressing “particular stories of information” like claims of election fraud — at which point her mic appeared to be cut off.
Starnes interjected: “Well, let me jump in here. No, no, no no, no, hold on, hold on, Gabrielle, again let me jump in here and we’re going to have to wrap this interview.”
He continued: “Again, Newsmax certainly does not believe that the election was rigged and we just cannot go down that path.”
Still, anxiety is running high at Newsmax. A number of staffers are plotting their exit ahead of the Smartmatic and Dominion trials, which are perceived internally as a lethal threat to the struggling network.
“Moderate concern has exploded into widespread panic among staffers that Newsmax’s days are numbered,” one Newsmax insider told Mediaite. “The used-car salesman style approach to pitching shares to viewers ahead of an IPO has seemed to many like a last ditch effort to pad ultra-tight budgets and likely help fund an upcoming settlement. The common theme is that Newsmax simply can’t afford a settlement of the magnitude that was reached with Fox News and Dominion.”