It gets at the core conceit of Trumpism: that mass deception—the warping of public perception—is the predicate for everything. Because once a large enough minority is bought in to a lie, you can get away with almost anything. Including, they hoped, stealing an election. https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1324183182720274432

In the empirical world: right, who cares. The votes are what they are. In the world Trump thought he inhabited, where Fox would back up his lies one last time, he might actually have gotten away with it. That’s why he’s mad.

Another example here: In an empirical sense, who cares who calls it first? Losing is losing and eventually all the networks, even Fox will be unanimous about it. But you can’t steal the election through the window of doubt without partners in mass deception. https://twitter.com/jeremymbarr/status/1324666393879584768

When all’s said and done, the story of why Fox and Murdoch weren’t there for him, why they randomly maintained an election-data unit with integrity and didn’t altogether sideline it to help Trump foster doubt, will be interesting to read.