Fox host Lou Dobbs complained that he couldn't find 'actual proof' of voter fraud - but kept pushing the discredited theory anyway

• The Fox Business host Lou Dobbs said Monday that he was unable to find proof of any election fraud in 2020 — but he continued to push such claims anyway.
• Speaking with Ed Rollins, the director of a pro-Trump PAC, he openly wondered why "we have had a devil of a time finding actual proof" of election fraud.
• Rollins said it was because pro-Trump factions had yet to have their day in court. But 60 out of 61 cases attempting to overturn Biden's win have failed.
• Fox Business previously had to walk back some specific election-related claims on Dobbs' show after a legal threat from the voting-technology company Smartmatic.
• Fox Business did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Fox Business host Lou Dobbs complained on his show on Monday that he could not find any proof to support his claims of election fraud - which he went on to falsely perpetuate.

The commentator was on "Lou Dobbs Tonight" with the former Ronald Reagan campaign director and pro-Trump PAC director Ed Rollins for a segment alleging a vast conspiracy to bring down President Donald Trump.

"Eight weeks from the election and we still don't have verifiable, tangible support for the crimes that everyone knows were committed," Dobbs said.

"We know that's the case in Nevada," he added. "We know it's the case in Pennsylvania and a number of other states, but we have had a devil of a time finding actual proof."

Asked by Dobbs why this was, Rollins argued that "we haven't been able to get it before the courts" and that "no one's going to take this case up."

Both theories are not true.

The pro-Democratic lawyer Marc Elias, whose platform Democratic Docket has been tallying the challenges, reported as of Tuesday that Trump and his allies had made 61 legal challenges to President-elect Joe Biden in state courts and the Supreme Court. All but one were lost.

The pair also lamented a lack of support for Trump from the Republican Party and even from within the White House, even though 140 Republicans in the House and 12 in the Senate are expected to support moves to challenge Congress when it meets Wednesday to certify the election results.

Dobbs opened his show - the first of 2021 - by making a claim of "an ongoing, substantial and vigorous conspiracy that has spanned more than four years in an effort to block and overthrow President Trump."

Read more: OPINION: Trump's sad implosion is a good sign for Biden's agenda

He has been one of Trump's staunchest defenders - and had already had to walk back earlier false claims of election fraud relating to a voting-technology company.

He had claimed inaccurately that Smartmatic had connections to Dominion, another voting-technology company. The claimed association of the two has been central to widespread conspiracy theories about the election.

But after a legal warning from Smartmatic, Dobbs' show broadcast a long segment in which his earlier claims about the company were disavowed, as detailed by The Washington Post.

In Monday's segment, Dobbs made no mention of the companies but continued to falsely say "fraudulent votes" had been cast to hand Biden a sham victory.

Fox Business did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.