Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s interview with right-wing Newsmax descends into chaos

Twitter accounts of Mike Lindell and his company MyPillow have been permanently suspended  

Mayank Aggarwal
Thursday 04 February 2021 05:50 GMT
Comments
Newsmax anchor walks away from Mike Lindell interview

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

Bob Sellers, an anchor with conservative American news outlet Newsmax, walked out during a show on Tuesday while interviewing pro-Trump conspiracy theorist and chief executive officer of MyPillow, Mike Lindell, when the latter refused to stop his election fraud claims.

Mr Sellers and his co-host, Heather Childers, were interviewing Mr Lindell regarding “cancel culture” after Twitter permanently suspended his account last week following his continuing allegations about election fraud in favour of Joe Biden.  

Subsequently, on Monday, Twitter banned the account of his company, MyPillow, after Mr Lindell used that account to attack Twitter’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, to promote his unsubstantiated claims.

While the anchors were trying to ask him about cancel culture in context of his Twitter ban, Mr Lindell voiced allegations against Dominion Voting Systems – something that Donald Trump and his allies have done as well.  

Mr Sellers repeatedly tried to move him away from the voters fraud allegations but without any success. To ensure that the news outlet is not made a party to a lawsuit due to Mr Lindell’s assertions, the host told viewers that there is nothing substantive about his allegations.

“You’re talking about machines… we at Newsmax have not been able to verify any of those kinds of allegations. We just want to let people know that there’s nothing substantive we’ve seen,” said Mr Sellers.

In fact, Mr Sellers then read a written statement even as Mr Lindell continued.

“Let me read you something. While there were some clear evidence of some cases of vote fraud and election irregularities, the election results in every state were certified, and Newsmax accepts the results as legal and final, the courts have also supported that view,” read Mr Sellers.

But when Mr Lindell continued, Mr Sellers walked out of the show, “American Agenda,” stating that, “Can I ask our producers, can we get out of here, please? I don’t want to have to keep going over this.”  

Dominion has already threatened Mr Lindell with legal action for the "misinformation campaign" against them. Dominion has also filed a defamation lawsuit against Mr Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, over similar claims about them.

His co-host, Ms Childers, attempted to move away from the election fraud conversation but was also not successful in doing so. 

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in