The counting of the votes in the U.S. presidential election continues as of 1:30pm on Nov. 6 (Singapore time), but incumbent President Donald Trump has carried on his allegations of electoral fraud in a White House news conference, despite presenting no evidence to back up his allegations.

Questioned integrity of mail-in ballots

During a press conference in the morning of Nov. 6 (Singapore time), he attacked the vote-counting process and accused local election officials of corruption, The Washington Post reported, although without providing any evidence.

He said: "We were winning in all the key locations by a lot, actually, and then our numbers started miraculously getting whittled away in secret."

"And we're still ahead by a lot, but not as many because they're finding ballots," he continued.

"All of a sudden we have some mail-in ballots. It's amazing how these mail-in ballots are so one-sided too."

He did not take any questions during the presser.

The news conference was held in the evening (U.S. time), which captures the largest collective audience in TV news.

Major news networks cut away from the broadcast

Shortly after the broadcast started, major American TV news networks such as NBC, ABC, CBS and MSNBC interrupted the press conference to correct some of the claims that Trump made.

MSNBC, which has a large liberal following, was the first to cut away from the broadcast -- after just 35 seconds.

According to The New York Times (NYT), an anchor from "NBC Nightly News" said: "We have to interrupt here, because the president made a number of false statements, including the notion that there has been fraudulent voting."

"There has been no evidence of that," he added.

Fox News and CNN, however, continued with the broadcast.

CNN's broadcast included a caption that said in caps: "WITHOUT ANY EVIDENCE, TRUMP SAYS HE'S BEING CHEATED."

Fox News carried a different caption: "TRUMP: 'THEY'RE TRYING TO STEAL THE ELECTION.'"

However, its chief White House correspondent later told viewers the network has not "seen any evidence" to substantiate Trump's claims of electoral fraud.

Its news anchor agreed, saying "we have not seen the evidence yet".

Fox News first to call Arizona for Biden

The move, described as "a striking editorial decision" by The Washington Post, was on top of a series of decisions taken by the conservative cable news channel that complicated its relationship with Trump.

Fox News was the first news network to call Arizona early on Tuesday night for Biden with just 73 per cent of the state's vote counted -- The Associated Press did the same hours later.

The Fox News call was notable, for its decision to call a Biden win makes it the first news network to flip a state that Trump won back in 2016.

Trump's campaign then called Fox News out, saying it should retract its call for Biden.

1/ @FoxNews is a complete outlier in calling Arizona, and other media outlets should not follow suit.

There are still 1M+ Election Day votes out there waiting to be counted - we pushed our people to vote on Election Day, but now Fox News is trying to invalidate their votes!

— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) November 4, 2020

🚨This is big. @FoxNews and @AP should immediately retract their call in AZ. @realDonaldTrump is going to win the state.🚨 https://t.co/kBII2i5MQy

— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) November 4, 2020

According to NYT, the Trump campaign reached out to Fox News privately as well.

Fox News doubled down

But the network, home to some of Trump's most ardent defenders, doubled down on its call, putting the head of its decision desk on air to defend it.

Los Angeles Times reported that Arnon Mishkin, a well respected analyst who worked on campaigns for both Democratic and Republican candidates, said: "We are not pulling back that call."

He continued: "There is vote, additional vote that will be reported in Maricopa County. We do not believe that this will change the tenor or the texture of the race, and we strongly believe that our call will stand. And that’s why we’re not pulling back the call."

Trump had hit out at Fox News in recent months, dismissing the channel's polls that showed Biden's lead as "phony", according to Forbes.

He also called subsequent polls which showed him trailing Biden in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as "fake".

He also said on election day that the news network has "changed a lot in the last four years".

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Top image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images