Fox News hosts texted Meadows for Trump to Act on Jan. 6

[ad_1]

Throughout the last administration, Fox News served as an unofficial channel to a president who was almost always focused, with on-air lobbyists from the family of an accused war criminal to the former Israeli prime minister. But amid the turmoil in the Capitol, the effort to reach out to Trump is more direct than usual. According to text messages read aloud by Republican Liz Cheney at a hearing Monday night by the House committee investigating the insurgency, several Fox News hosts texted White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to urge Donald Trump to act to stop the rioters.

“Mark, the president needs to tell the people at the Capitol to go home,” Laura Ingraham texted Meadows. “It hurts us all. He’s ruining his legacy. ”Sean Hannity asked if the president could“ give a statement ”and“ ask people to leave the Capitol ”and Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade said supporters of Trump entering the building is “destroying everything you’ve done.” Kilmeade’s solution? ”Please get him on TV.” Another unofficial star on the network also texted Meadows: According to records obtained by committee before the former chief of staff stopped cooperating, Donald Trump Jr. also texted Meadows to ask the president to “condemn this nonsense as soon as possible.” (Perhaps his father did not respond to direct messages. .)

Liz Cheney reads texts from Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Brian Kilmeade, and Donald Trump Jr. urging former President Trump to act while he sat and did nothing for hours during the insurgency pic.twitter.com/jkk7KhxF0s

– Acyn (@Acyn) Dec 14, 2021

Putting aside the issue of whether the on-air talent of a news organization advising the president was a conflict of interest, the texts raised some questions about the more disinterested coverage of the insurgency hosts. In her show on Jan. 6, Laura Ingraham suggested that many of the majority could be leftist agitators: “I have never seen Trump rally attendees wearing helmets, black helmets, brown helmets, black backpack – the uniforms you saw in some of these crowd shots. ” (There is little evidence for the claim, which has become a common denunciation of violence in the Capitol.) That night, Kilmeade said: “I don’t know Trump supporters who have shown violence that I know of in a big situation . ”And on Monday night, shortly after the texts were read aloud by Rep. Cheney, Sean Hannity included Mark Meadows on his show for nearly 10 minutes without mentioning the exchange.

Other messages in Meadows were revealed on Monday detailing the extent of the White House’s knowledge of the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6. all helpless. ” Cheney argued that these messages left “no doubt” that Meadows and Trump knew how intense the break-in at the Capitol was. On Monday night, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack also voted to recommend holding Meadows in criminal contempt for violating the subpoena, whose proposal will go to the House at-large tomorrow.

Sign Up for the Intelligencer Newsletter

Daily news about the politics, business, and technology that are shaping our world.

Terms and Privacy Notice By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us.

[ad_2]