Steve Schmidt shreds 'cancerous' Fox News after their Jan 6 lies are exposed: 'They despise their audience'

Steve Schmidt declared Rupert Murdoch as the "most dangerous immigrant to ever arrive on American soil."

The former Republican strategist called out Fox News hosts and the network boss after Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) read panicked text messages that Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Brian Kilmeade sent to Mark Meadows asking Donald Trump to act as his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, but they later went on the air and suggested the attack was carried out by leftist protesters.

"Fox News hosts and executives hold their audience in complete contempt," Schmidt tweeted. "They despise them. The disrespect shown to the audience is unprecedented in broadcast history. The lying is ceaseless and every word is delivered with blind faith that the audience is stupid and oblivious."

"The cynicism and dishonesty of Hannity, Eva Braun Ingraham, and all the rest is astonishing," Schmidt added. "Rupert Murdoch’s lie machine is directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans, the poisoning of our democracy and the stoking of a cold civil war. There has never been anything like it and it is beyond terrible for the country. Bar none, Rupert Murdoch is the worst and most dangerous immigrant to ever arrive on American soil. There are no words for the awfulness of his cancerous network."

READ: 'We're in trouble': Steve Schmidt issues dire warning about changed GOP after January 6th riot

Schmidt then took aim at former House speaker Paul Ryan, who sits on the board of the Fox Corporation, and Ingraham, whom he called a "total fraud."

"Do you not feel any shame over this?" he tweeted. "Is it possible that you don’t understand the catastrophe caused in this country by the lying and extremism on Fox News? Is it that you don’t care? Does Rupert pay you so much that nothing else matters?"

READ: Steve Schmidt issues dire warning: US just one election away from permanent Trumpian autocratic rule