‘I Don’t Want To Hear Their Crap’: Chris Wallace Admits He’s ‘Purposely’ Kept Election Deniers Off His Show Whenever Possible

Fox anchor Chris Wallace said Wednesday that he had “purposely” kept election deniers off his show, “Fox News Sunday,” whenever possible.

Wallace told “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert that he had spoken to Republican Party leadership because he felt as though he had to, but that he had made sure to press them on the Capitol riot that occurred Jan. 6 and on whether or not they believed President Joe Biden had legitimately won the 2020 presidential election. (RELATED: ‘No, No, Sir, Respectfully — Wait, Sir’: Chris Wallace Presses GOP Rep. On Claim That Republicans Defunded Police)

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“Chris Wallace. I’m wondering whether you and your fellow Sunday morning guys out there who are doing the Sunday shows talking about the week, if you ever feel like you shouldn’t have on people who have the irrational belief that the last election was stolen,” Colbert dove right into the January 6 conversation immediately after introducing Wallace, and the audience cheered.

“And I know you’ve held these guys feet to the fire. I’m not— I don’t want to suggest that you haven’t pushed back. You have, quite famously,” Colbert continued. “But have you ever seen anything so cynical in Washington, D.C., than this knowledgeable— people saying things they know aren’t true, that they know has to have lasting damage on our democracy coming on TV and saying these things with a straight face?”

“I have never seen this,” Wallace agreed, saying that after four decades in Washington he had certainly seen plenty of bad things but that he had never seen something quite like the response to the Capitol riots.

He went on to argue that, while he believed it was possible that some of them were “delusional,” he believed more were making a political calculation designed to appease former President Donald Trump.

“Now, I don’t believe that you just sit there and say, ‘I’m not going to have them on.’ But if I’m going to have them on, I’m going to hold them to account over and over about, you know, what about— what about this election?” Wallace continued, saying that he pressed them repeatedly to admit that Biden was “elected fair and square.”

Colbert asked whether Wallace prepped his guests, warning them that if they pushed election denial he would call them out.

“We don’t prepare it, they know me. They know I’m going to be like that,” Wallace said, adding that he had been sickened by what he watched on Jan. 6 and he could not let that go.

“I was, too,” Colbert agreed, adding that he thought people who were unwilling to speak or at least admit the truth should be disqualified from being in the public sphere.

“Does it worry that you give legitimacy to people who have abdicated all public responsibility?” he asked.

“Well, there are plenty of people who, you know, were other leaders of — in the Congress — of challenging it that I just have not had on the show ever since then. And have purposely not had on the show because I frankly don’t want to hear —their crap,” Wallace said, to cheers and applause.

“But having said that, there are some leaders that, you know, you have to do— you have to ask them questions. They’re people in leadership in the Senate,” he concluded. “But I won’t let them come on without putting them through the wringer.”

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