Sinclair-owned ABC and NBC stations did air President Donald Trump’s primetime speech Thursday evening, despite the news networks choosing to stream the address instead.
A spokesperson for Sinclair, Inc. confirmed to TheWrap Thursday that they “preempted network programming” on their NBC and ABC affiliated stations to air The National News Desk, which carried the president’s remarks. The decision came about after “NBC and ABC networks chose not to air the address.”
“FOX and CBS networks aired the President’s address, which was carried on our FOX and CBS affiliated stations,” the spokesperson added.
As we previously reported, ABC News and NBC News both confirmed earlier in the day that they planned to carry President Trump’s 9 p.m. ET speech live on their respective streaming news services while limiting broadcast network coverage. While ABC News indicated that its Special Report team was prepared to interrupt ABC’s primetime lineup “should significant developments occur,” NBC News noted it planned on broadcasting a special report after the speech was over.
The decision appeared to irk the president, who took a moment to condemn the networks’ decision in his address, in which he accused China of “sinister election meddling” in Joe Biden’s 2020 win.
“In a rare move, NBC and ABC Fake News have both said that they would not cover this speech,” Trump said. “They knew what it was about, because of the fact that they don’t like the topic. Because they know how corrupt our system is, and they don’t want to reveal it. They and others in the media are part of a plot. They want to continue this fraud for whatever reason. They want to keep it going. They want to protect the radical left.”
The president continued: “They can’t have a great country, and that’s true. You can’t have a great country without free and fair elections. Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses. They use our public multi-billion-dollar-in-value airwaves for absolutely no money. They pay nothing. All we want is honesty in our elections and honesty in reporting. They pay nothing for multi-billion-dollar assets. Great damage has been done to our country.”
Representatives for ABC News and NBC News did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.