- Media mogul Rupert Murdoch mentioned former President Donald Trump on a shareholder call Wednesday.
- The News Corp. founder and board member dinged the ex-president over his 2020 election obsession.
- "The past is the past," Murdoch said of Trump and conservatives' role in public debate.
In rare public comments, News Corp. Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch told shareholders on Wednesday that former President Donald Trump is not helping further conservatism in public debate.
Murdoch, who was the chairman and CEO of News Corp. from 1980 until 2013, name dropped Trump during his comments during the company's annual meeting.
"The current American political debate is profound, whether about education or welfare or economic opportunity," Murdoch said, according to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.
"It is crucial that conservatives play an active, forceful role in that debate, but that will not happen if President Trump stays focused on the past," he continued. "The past is the past, and the country is now in a contest to define the future."
Murdoch, 90, has built and overseen a conservative media empire with major right-leaning print publications and television networks throughout the English speaking world.
Trump had a falling out with Fox News — now owned by Murdoch under the Fox Corporation after it was spun off from News Corp. in 2019 following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by The Walt Disney Company — when the network called Arizona for President Joe Biden during the week of the 2020 election. Fox News defended the call made by its decision desk, despite intense protests from Trump and others in the White House.
Aside from a few guest appearances from members of Trump's legal team, Fox largely steered clear of Trump's lies over widespread fraud in the election as the former president gravitated toward networks such as Newsmax and OAN.