David Litt, once a speechwriter for former President Barack Obama, hilariously ambushed Newsmax anchor Rob Finnerty during an interview on Monday. Litt turned questions about Elon Musk into a shaming of the far-right channel for pushing baseless election fraud conspiracies. (Watch the exchange below.)
In introducing Litt, Finnerty noted on his show “Wake Up America” that he had not seen the weekend’s “Saturday Night Live” episode with Musk guest-hosting and wanted Litt’s opinion. (Finnerty also worked in some praise for Donald Trump’s 2015 “SNL” appearance.)
Litt dropped all pretenses immediately.
“What happened on ‘SNL’ this weekend was that people made stuff up and then said it on television like it’s true,” Litt began. “And that actually happens pretty frequently in American TV. For example in 2020, Dominion Voting Systems sued Newsmax over its false claims about election fraud. Newsmax was lying to its own viewers and Newsmax had to settle that lawsuit. ... Are you still telling that lie? Or are you telling new lies?”
Finnerty tried to deflect Litt’s trolling attempt by asking if Litt wanted to catch him off-topic or wanted to discuss Musk.
“Well, I can see why you don’t wanna talk about Dominion Voting Systems,” Litt replied.
Finnerty attempted to keep his cool, but froze briefly when Litt asked him point-blank: “Did Dominion Voting Systems have any impact on the 2020 election?”
Finnerty didn’t answer the question, of course.
The exchange made for some good morning cable news theater and generated a deserved call-out of the Trump-loving network.
Dominion filed a defamation lawsuit against Newsmax in December for the false claims that Dominion voting machines were rigged against Trump. In response, Newsmax issued an on-air retraction and apology. Dominion later dropped Newsmax from the lawsuit, according to outlets.