President Trump's influential supporter Rupert Murdoch is telling close associates he believes Joe Biden will win the election in a landslide.
The Australian-born billionaire is disgusted by Trump's handling of COVID-19, remarking that the president is his own worst enemy, that he is not listening to advice about how best to handle the pandemic, and that he's creating a never-ending crisis for his administration, according to three people who have spoken with Murdoch.
In response to an email inquiry for this report asking him if he believes Biden will win in a landslide and his thoughts on Trump's handling of coronavirus, Murdoch responded, "No comment except I've never called Trump an idiot,
" referring to a 2018 report that the media mogul called the president a "fucking idiot" following a chat about immigration.
While Murdoch believes the outcome of the election is a fait accompli, his New York tabloid has been doing everything in its power to help Trump's re-election chances, publishing a screaming page 1 story on Wednesday under the headline, "Biden Secret E-Mails." The supposed "smoking gun" emails purported to show that Hunter Biden had introduced his father to a Ukrainian businessman when he was vice president, though the Post relied on unverified documents given to them by Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani. (Biden's team denies that such a meeting took place.)
Murdoch had long prized having unfettered access to the White House, much like the direct line he has enjoyed to leaders in Australia and the U.K. But people familiar with the matter say the two men have not spoken in several weeks after Murdoch grew tired of Trump's endless complaints about what the president viewed as negative coverage on Fox News.
The 89-year-old has spent much of 2020 in Oxfordshire with fourth wife, Jerry Hall, and is described by people both within Fox and News Corp as "semi-retired" from day-to-day operations of his media empire, having delegated responsibilities to his eldest son, Lachlan, following the sale of vast parts of 21st Century Fox to Disney for $52.4 billion last year.
At one point in the winter, as Murdoch grew increasingly frustrated with Trump, he even considered getting behind another Democratic candidate, having discussions about supporting Mike Bloomberg in his ill-fated presidential run, a Murdoch executive told The Daily Beast.
In the run-up to the 2016 election, Murdoch twice tweeted his support for a Bloomberg run.
But he is now firmly of the mindset that the next president will be Biden, telling one associate, "after all that has gone on, people are ready for Sleepy Joe."
Friends say Murdoch has never taken Trump seriously and his association with him is out of business necessity. He once tweeted, "When is Donald Trump going to stop embarrassing his friends, let alone the whole country?"
It has been a tumultuous year for the Murdoch family, with youngest son, James, and his wife, Kathryn, unleashing an extraordinary public attack on Fox News and News Corp over their coverage of the deadly Australian wildfires.
"Kathryn and James' views on climate are well established and their frustration with some of the News Corp and Fox coverage of the topic is also well known," a spokesperson for the couple told The Daily Beast in January.
Exclusive: Fox News Owner Rupert Murdoch Predicts a Landslide Win for Biden
The Australian mogul is disgusted by Trump’s handling of COVID-19, remarking that the president is his own worst enemy and telling associates “people are ready for Sleepy Joe.”
www.thedailybeast.com
