‘Where are you going to find the votes?’: Trump adviser clashes with Fox News host in fiery exchange

The president and his supporters have been turning away from their once-favorite network in recent days

Fox News host Leland Vittert and Trump campaign spokesperson Erin Perrine had a fiery exchange on Saturday as the journalist pressed her on where the president, who still refuses to concede and continues challenging results across the country, expects to find enough votes to overturn the election.

Ms Perrine accused Fox, and the media at large, of declaring the election over. That is technically true — organisations like the Associated Press called the election for Joe Biden last week — but based on genuine results, which show that Mr Trump has no mathematically feasible way to win enough states to get the needed 270 electoral votes.

“You’re trying to say this is done and over. The media is trying to say this is done and over,” Ms Perrine said. “I get it. You guys spent years trying to run up a Russia hoax against the president and the hypocrisy continues,” she added.

As the exchange got more heated, Mr Vittert became visibly exasperated, alternating between resigned laughter and a mouth hanging agape.

“I’m trying to ask you, very simply, where are you going to find the votes?” he said as the argument continued. “You say you want to count every vote, conceivably because you think that means you’re going to pull ahead. Where are the votes and a path to 270?”

On that point, Ms Perrine did not answer the question, instead changing the subject.

“We are taking every legal avenue that exists in these states to make sure that legal votes are counted and illegal votes are discounted,” she said. “Here’s a question for you Leland, for every Democrat and every talking head on the news, how much fraud is ok? How many dead people can vote and you’re ok with that?”

There is no evidence of any meaningful voter fraud or irregularity in the 2020 election, and the Trump campaign’s lawsuits around the country trying to cast doubt on the election have largely failed as a result.

The network, once the president’s favorite, fell out of favor with him and his supporters after it became the first to call Arizona in Mr Biden’s favour. Multiple chants of “Fox News sucks!” broke out at recent pro-Trump demonstrations challenging the election in recent days.