Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and Brian Kilmeade — some of the most fervent defenders Donald Trump — pleaded with his chief of staff Mark Meadows to have the then-president condemn and stop violent rioters as they attacked the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to newly revealed texts.
Text messages from the hosts, unnamed Republican lawmakers, and even the former president’s son Donald Trump Jr., were read out loud on Monday during a hearing of the congressional panel tasked with investigating the insurrection. The texts were sent to Meadows during the middle of the violence, pleading with him to get Trump to make a public statement to stop the attack.
“He’s got to condemn this shit ASAP. The Capitol Police tweet is not enough,” Donald Trump Jr.’s text said, according to excerpts read by Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chair of the panel.
Cheney read some of the text messages that were turned over to the committee by Meadows as part of their investigation into the attack. On Monday, its members unanimously recommended the House vote to hold Meadows in contempt for his refusal to testify before them. The House is expected to consider the matter on Tuesday.
The text messages showed the extent to which several Fox News personalities privately sought action from Trump, who was silent for hours during the insurrection. In spite of their desperate communications on Jan. 6, some of them would go on to downplay the violence at the Capitol.
“Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us,” Ingraham texted Meadows at the time, according to Cheney’s reading. “He is destroying his legacy.”
But in public, Ingraham would go on to later attack the accounts of Capitol officers who faced down the violent mob, dismissing their testimony before Congress as “theatrics.”
In a segment in July on The Ingraham Angle, Ingraham made fun of the officers with mock awards such as “Best Use of Tears and Dramatic Pauses” and “Best Use of Exaggeration” after they testified about the violence at the Capitol.
Full @RepLizCheney statement on holding Mark Meadows in contempt, including texts from Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Brian Kilmeade and others:
“These text messages leave no doubt…multiple Fox News hosts knew the president needed to act immediately. They texted Mr. Meadows.”
Twitter: @cspan
Hannity, a fierce supporter of Trump, also texted Meadows in an effort to get Trump to encourage the mob to leave the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“Can he make a statement, ask people to leave the Capitol?” Hannity texted Meadows, Cheney read.
But in an interview with Trump in late November, the Fox News host defended Trump’s actions that day and also attacked the Jan. 6 committee.
“It seems to me that the committee has a pre-determined conclusion, outcome,” Hannity told Trump. “And that is to once again try to bludgeon you.”
On Dec. 7, Meadows appeared on Hannity, and the two men again defended the Trump’s actions. Neither mentioned that in private Hannity had urged for the then-president to act.
“This is the same Donald Trump that said, ‘Many of you will peacefully and patriotically march to the Capitol so your voices may be heard,” Hannity said.
Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade also reached out to Meadows on Jan. 6, according to Cheney.
“Please get him on TV,” Kilmede texted. “Destroying everything you have accomplished.”
Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed News.