Mike Lindell is latest Trump ally to turn on Fox News despite using network to advertise his pillows

Pillow salesman and conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell on Thursday spent a portion of his day at the Conservative Political action Conference shouting about Fox News — a television network on which he frequently advertises — and airing grievances about House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s decision to let one of that network’s hosts access footage from the January 6 Capitol riot.

Mr Lindell, whose star turns in commercials for his MyPillow products made him a ubiquitous presence on Fox years before his promotion of conspiracy theories about the 2020 election made him a star in conservative media circles, has a booth at the annual right-wing confab for his eponymous Lindell TV streaming outfit.

On Thursday, the first day of the three-day conference, he was observed holding court at his booth while delivering a meandering rant about Fox, which he claims is party to covering up what he describes as massive election fraud because the network has acknowledged President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

Asked about his lawsuit against Fox News seeking access to January 6 security footage, Mr Lindell told reporters: "CNN should have it. MSNBC should have it. Everyone should have it."

"You can't — what the biggest, disturbing thing is — No 1 is freedom of press, and it's discrimination. Let's just say: Why Fox? That's the last person I would want to have it, because they've already proven in their defamation lawsuits with Dominion, they didn't subpoena me,” he said.

“They didn't ask me for the evidence. So, what I'm thinkin', what is Fox gonna do? Just put down what they want to put out from Jan 6? There's people in prison that might want to see some of that. There's me. I want to see some of that for reasons that should be — 40-something-thousand hours of tape! Every news outlet in the country should have it to dive into them and whoever finds the best news first wins, right? That's what it should be."

Mr Lindell’s complaints about Fox included anchor Tucker Carlson, on whose programme he frequently places advertisements.

He said Mr Carlson, who was revealed to have mocked his claims about election fraud in court documents released as part of Dominion Voting Systems’ libel lawsuit against the network,

“He got on stage in Arizona at the convention down there and said we have to get rid of the machines. Because we know more now? I knew it back then on Jan 9. Those guys didn't know that,” he said.

“So now everything we have now — we have canceled records of the last two elections, including 2020, all of it was machine corruption, machine manipulated — every county in this country in the last two elections except for Florida, in the 2022, Ron's conspiracy — or conspiring with Dominion —I don't know why there was no computer problems. But if you ask those guys now — ask Tucker! Tucker will say, absolutely, that election was stolen. Back then they might not — it was their opinion."