
Bessent Says Tariff Status Quo With China ‘Working Pretty Well'
When asked in a Fox News interview when progress in negotiations would be seen and if the US needed a trade agreement because of how tariffs were going, Bessent said that 'we're very happy' with the tariff situation with China. 'I think right now the status quo is working pretty well,' he said.
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Fox News has asserted that any problems Smartmatic has experienced in attracting new business are rooted not in its reporting but in the federal investigation into the company's activities with overseas governments. Last year, Smartmatic's founder, Roger Alejandro Piñate Martinez, and two other company officials were indicted by the U.S. attorney's office and charged with bribing Philippine officials in order to get voting machine contracts in the country in 2016. While the Trump camp's assertions that the election was fixed were not believed throughout Fox News and parent company Fox Corp., the conservative-leaning network gave continued to give them oxygen to keep its audience tuned in, the motion alleged. The motion described a 'pivot' that occurred on Nov. 8, 2020, when then-Fox News Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan asked Fox News Media Chief Executive Suzanne Scott to address the decline in the network's ratings after Biden was declared the winner of the election. The network also looked at research to evaluate why viewers were leaving. 'The conclusion reached based on performance analytics: give the audience more election fraud,' the court document stated. Such thinking, the filing said, permeated the company, already in a panic over losing viewers to right-leaning network Newsmax. The upstart outlet saw a ratings surge after Biden's win due to its unwavering support of Trump's claims. 'Think about how incredible our ratings would be if Fox went ALL in on STOP THE STEAL,' Fox News host Jesse Watters said in a text to his colleague Greg Gutfeld. 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Federal prosecutors handling the case involving Smartmatic's business in the Philippines said they plan to detail similar alleged schemes out of L.A. County and Venezuela to show that the bribery fits a larger pattern. Fox News attorneys have filed a brief asking for county records that they believe will help bolster their case. The network is also expected to try to get the Smartmatic indictments in front of the court to raise doubts about the company's reputation. A Smartmatic representative said Fox News' records request is a diversion tactic. 'Fox lies and when caught they lie again to distract,' a Smartmatic representative said in a statement. 'Fox's latest filing is just another attempt to divert attention from its long-standing campaign of falsehoods and defamation against Smartmatic.' The company added that it abided with the law in Los Angeles County and 'every jurisdiction where we operate.' 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