- Jared Kushner recounts calling Rupert Murdoch on election night 2020 in his upcoming memoir.
- Kushner called the media tycoon after Fox News called Arizona for President Joe Biden.
Former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner says NewsCorp owner Rupert Murdoch told him, "Sorry, Jared, there is nothing I can do," after Fox News called Arizona for President Joe Biden on election night 2020.
Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, recounts the call in his forthcoming memoir, according to a page tweeted out by The New York Times' Ken Vogel on Wednesday.
—Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) July 27, 2022
Fox News' decision desk made waves by being the first major outlet to project that Biden would win the battleground state of Arizona, making him the first Democrat to do so since President Bill Clinton in 1996.
Kushner wrote that the "shocking projection brought our momentum to a screeching halt" and "instantly changed the mood among our campaign's leaders, who were scrambling to understand the network's methodology."
Kushner writes he called up Murdoch, the powerful media tycoon and owner of Fox News' parent company, to ask why the Fox News decision desk had called Arizona so early. Murdoch initially said he needed to look into it and would call him back, Kushner wrote.
"Sorry, Jared, there is nothing I can do," Kushner says Murdoch told him. "The Fox News data authority says the numbers are ironclad — he says it won't be close."
A representative for Fox News did not respond to Insider's request for comment.
Chris Stirewalt, the Fox News politics editor who made the Arizona call and was subsequently fired from the network, publicly testified to the House Committee investigating January 6 about the process behind calling Arizona.
Other top Trump campaign officials and advisors also testified to the grim mood in the campaign as more results came in.
The revelations from the January 6 hearings could mark a sea change in Trump's once-cozy relationship with the Murdoch empire, with editorial boards of two other NewsCorp-owned properties, the Wall Street Journal and New York Post, sharply denouncing Trump's inaction as the Capitol riot unfolded on January 6.