Fox News stars privately blamed Donald Trump for prolonging the chaos at the Capitol, then took a different position on their shows

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Fox News host Sean Hannity.AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File

Fox News hosts immediately after the riot at the Capitol used their shows to avoid blame from Trump.

But new text messages sent to Mark Meadows showed them taking a different position privately.

They showed the likes of Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham begging Trump to intervene.

Text messages released by the January 6 House select committee on Monday showed Fox News hosts were among those urging former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to call on former President Donald Trump to be removed his supporters as they stormed the Capitol.

Their efforts then were quite the opposite of the message they gave to their viewers on the day of the riot.

Sean Hannity, a longtime friend and confidant of Trump, texted Meadows in a bid for Trump to oust his supporters.

“Can he make a statement, Ask the people to leave the Capitol,” Hannity’s message read.

Laura Ingraham, a network host and hardline ally of Trump, expressed the request.

“Mark, the president needs to tell people to go home to the Capitol. This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy,” she texted Meadows.

And Brian Kilmeade, a host of “Fox & Friends,” texted: “Please, take him on TV. It’s ruining everything you’ve done.”

The hosts, clearly disappointed, all gave the same impression: Trump had the power to stop the riot but didn’t use it.

But as the three performed that night, their focus was on shifting the blame from Trump and his supporters.

All three condemned the violence but played up baseless theories that the damage done was primarily the fault of leftist groups.

Ingraham used his show on Jan. 6 to argue that the rioters did not look like Trump supporters.

“I’ve never seen Trump rally attendees wearing helmets – black helmets, brown helmets, black backpacks – the uniforms you see in some of these mostly shots,” he said. . “Have you ever seen them wear, as Chris said, knee pads and all the pads on their elbows?

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“I’ve been to a lot of these rallies. I know you, you both have covered them. I have never seen that before. Ever.”

Kilmeade in an interview with Fox News that night expressed skepticism that Trump supporters were behind the violence.

“I don’t know Trump supporters who have shown violence that I know of in a big situation,” he said.

And Hannity on his radio show that night pushed the conspiracy theory that the antifa, the loose anti-fascist movement, had infiltrated the protests.

In his TV show, he suggested that “bad actors” may be behind the chaos.

“We also knew that there’s also bad actors that will infiltrate large crowds,” he said during his opening segment that night.

A Fox News spokesman did not immediately respond to the Insider’s request for comment.

Some of the network’s hosts after the riot continued to push conspiracy theories about who was behind the violence and sought to exonerate Trump.

Leading host Tucker Carlson in a recent documentary has no basis to claim that law enforcement incited violence on Jan. 6 as part of a bid to discredit Trump supporters.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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