America’s major networks, including ABC, NBC and MSNBC cut Trump off during 17-minute tirade

TV news anchors, political pundits and Hollywood stars have torn into President Trump after he took to the airwaves to sensationally claim the presidential election was being stolen from him.

At least seven television networks including ABC, CBS and NBC, cut away from Trump’s White House address Thursday evening after he called the entire race into question, claiming it was rigged against him from start to finish by a vast conspiracy.  

Fox News and CNN were among the few channels to air the president’s full speech, after which CNN’s Anderson Cooper said Trump was ‘like an obese turtle flailing in the sun.’

‘That is the President of the United States. That is the most powerful person in the world and we see him like an obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun realizing his time is over,’ Cooper said on air. 

‘But he just hasn’t accepted it and he wants to take everybody down with him, including this country.’ 

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CNN’s Anderson Cooper said Trump was ‘like an obese turtle flailing in the sun, realizing his time is over’ after the president sensationally claimed the election was being ‘stolen’ from him 

Fellow news anchor Lester Holt also cut away from Trump's speech due to the 'false statements' he was making

Fellow news anchor Lester Holt also cut away from Trump’s speech due to the ‘false statements’ he was making 

Cooper’s harsh sentiments were echoed by fellow network personalities who cut away from Trump’s address to sharply criticize him over his angry, middle-of-the-night speech as the election hung in the balance.  

‘We have to interrupt here, because the president has made a number of false statements, including the notion that there has been fraudulent voting,’ said NBC’s Lester Holt. ‘There has been no evidence of that.’

CNN’s Jake Tapper called it a ‘sad night’ for Americans who had to hear the president ‘try to attack democracy that way with this feast of falsehoods.’  

‘Lie after lie, after lie about the election being stolen. No evidence for what he’s saying, just smears about the integrity,’ he told viewers. 

‘When he wins a state it’s legitimate, when he loses it’s because the vote is being stolen from him. It’s not true, it’s frankly pathetic.’ 

Tapper also blasted Trump for questioning why the majority of mail-in ballots were in favor of Democratic challenger Joe Biden when he had urged his base to not take part in the process.  

‘We all know the answer. It’s because the president told his supporters not to vote by mail so Democrats did it overwhelmingly,’ he said. 

MSNBC also cut away from Trump to anchor Brian Williams during the speech. 

'Here we are again in the unusual position of not only interrupting the president of the United States but correcting the president of the United States,' MSNBC's Brian Williams said

‘Here we are again in the unusual position of not only interrupting the president of the United States but correcting the president of the United States,’ MSNBC’s Brian Williams said 

Mark Ruffalo reacted to the extraordinary statement, calling Trump's remarks 'all lies'

Mark Ruffalo reacted to the extraordinary statement, calling Trump’s remarks ‘all lies’ 

Filmmaker Michael Moore also took to Twitter to call the spectacle 'stunning, unhinged and breathtaking'

Filmmaker Michael Moore also took to Twitter to call the spectacle ‘stunning, unhinged and breathtaking’

‘Here we are again in the unusual position of not only interrupting the president of the United States but correcting the president of the United States,’ Williams said. 

‘There are no illegal votes that we know of, there has been no Trump victory that we know of.’

After ABC ended its coverage, the network’s White House correspondent, Jonathan Karl, also said there was no evidence of illegal votes.

‘What he seems to be frustrated by is … that it takes time to count votes,’ Karl said. ‘It’s always taken time to count votes. But especially in this election.’

USA Today’s editor-in-chief Nicole Carroll issued a statement explaining her decision to pull the livestream of the event. 

CNN's Jake Tapper called it a 'sad night' for Americans who had to hear the president 'try to attack democracy that way with this feast of falsehoods'

CNN’s Jake Tapper called it a ‘sad night’ for Americans who had to hear the president ‘try to attack democracy that way with this feast of falsehoods’

‘President Trump, without evidence, claimed the presidential election was corrupt and fraudulent. We stopped the livestream of his remarks early and have removed the video from all of our platforms,’ she said. 

‘Our job is to spread truth not unfounded conspiracies.’ 

Protests against Trump’s claims also spread to Hollywood, where a number of actors including Mark Ruffalo slammed the president for his outlandish claims. 

‘There is not a single shred of evidence to anything Trump is claiming. It’s all lies and it’s not going to go anywhere with the courts he has lost all but one lawsuit because he has no credible claims,’ Ruffalo tweeted. 

Filmmaker and vocal Trump critic Michael Moore also took to Twitter to call the spectacle ‘stunning, unhinged and breathtaking.’  

‘Wild accusations. A danger to America & the world, a menace to society. The next time you see him, his name will be Lame Duck. Quack,’ Moore said. 

On Fox News Channel, commentators Bill Bennett and Byron York said that just because Trump did not allege specific instances of irregularities doesn’t mean there haven’t been any. But the president and his lawyers need to present evidence, they said.

‘What we saw tonight is a president who believes that at the end of the day, when all the votes are counted, the election is not going to to go his way, so he’s trying to plan an alternate route to retain the White House,’ said Fox White House correspondent John Roberts.

The New York Post, a prominent Trump media ally, headlined a story on the speech, ‘Donald Trump makes baseless election fraud claims in White House address.’

In his 17-minute tirade Trump claimed he was the victim of ‘big media, big money and big tech’ coming together to commit ‘historic election interference’ to give Joe Biden the presidency.

He claimed that if all ‘legal votes’ were counted he would win the election as he charged Democrats with trying to steal the contest ‘corruptly’ through mail-in ballots in a suddenly-announced White House address delivered as his tiny voting leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia slipped further. 

At the podium in the briefing room he read from from a script and listed his grievances at Biden’s campaign, ‘suppression polls’ and ‘fraud.’ 

Trust me I won: Donald Trump takes to the White House briefing room podium to claim he won

Trust me I won: Donald Trump takes to the White House briefing room podium to claim he won 

He left without taking a question as CNN’s White House reporter Jim Acosta shouted: ‘Are you a sore loser?’ – then his press secretary Kayleigh McEnany had to scuttle back to the podium because he had forgotten to take his notes with him.

Trump’s condemnation of the entire democratic system and his growing list of enemies was switched off rapidly by TV network after TV network. 

Republicans turned on him within minutes with Larry Hogan, the Maryland governor, saying: ‘There is no defense. No person or election is more important than our democracy.’ GOP rep Adam Klinzinger called it ‘insane.’

Damning verdict: Larry Hogan, the Republican Maryland governor became its most senior voice to speak out. Adam Kinzinger is a Republican congressman from Illinois who was one of the first of his party to slam Trump

Damning verdict: Larry Hogan, the Republican Maryland governor became its most senior voice to speak out. Adam Kinzinger is a Republican congressman from Illinois who was one of the first of his party to slam Trump

At the briefing room podium – where the only aide with him was White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnanany – Trump appeared downcast as he listed his enemies and claimed a victory which nobody has handed to him.

‘If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us,’ he said during what he called a press conference.

Joe Biden tweeted a rebuke shortly after he finished saying: ‘No one is going to take our democracy away from us. 

‘Not now, not ever. America has come too far, fought too many battles, and endured too much to let that happen.’

Trump, whose campaign has launched lawsuits in several battleground states, spoke more about the polls than he did about his own campaign, calling them ‘phony’ and ‘suppression polls,’ claiming that errors by pollsters were a deliberate attempt to keep his supporters at home.

Then he turned on his own party saying that because of him was no ‘blue wave,’  referring to Democrats’ failure to win the Senate and add to their majority in the House.

MAGA is here: As Donald Trump spoke, his supporters in Arizona were demanding the count go on while his lawyers in Pennsylvania were demanding it stops

MAGA is here: As Donald Trump spoke, his supporters in Arizona were demanding the count go on while his lawyers in Pennsylvania were demanding it stops

That was a coded attack on Republicans’ most senior figures who have refused to come out in support of his claims of fraud. His son Don Jr. railed against Republicans earlier in similar terms – but Mitch McConnell has said that every vote must be counted.

‘We won by historic numbers. And the pollsters got it knowingly wrong, they got it knowingly wrong. We had polls that were so ridiculous and everybody knew it at the time. There was no blue wave that they predicted,’ Trump said. 

Trump’s lead in Pennsylvania is slipping and in Georgia too Biden is creeping up on him, while Biden remains ahead in Nevada and Arizona. Biden needs only Pennsylvania to win, taking him to 273 electoral college votes, or Nevada and Arizona, taking him to 270. In contrast Trump would need to secure North Carolina, Arizona and Pennsylvania to secure 271. 

Trump had not been seen for more than 36 hours after appearing in the White House East Room at 2.30am on Wednesday morning in front of cheering fans in MAGA hats to claim then that he had ‘won.’

But he spoke after a measured Biden asked Americans to be patient and calm as they waited for the final ballots in the presidential race to be counted – amid mounting anxiety over the long wait for results, and concern about public order.