Fox News personalities were slammed after Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) read into the congressional record text messages sent by network personalities on Jan. 6 urging then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to get Trump stop his supporters from storming the capitol on Jan. 6.
“Can he make a statement. Ask people to leave the Capitol," Sean Hannity texted.
“Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy," Laura Ingraham texted Meadows.
“Please, get him on TV. Destroying everything you have accomplished," Brian Kilmeade texted.
READ: Mark Meadows describes freak out at the White House after Fox News called Arizona for Biden
The network — and its stars — were blasted for privately blaming Trump for his insurrection while publicly blaming Antifa.
Here's some of what people were saying:
The most damning part of this is that of course these people KNEW BETTER. At Fox, hosts like Hannity and Laura, in the White House, in Congress, even in Trump's own family - they all KNEW BETTER. Then. And now. And they still defend him.— S.E. Cupp (@S.E. Cupp) 1639444366
Dear Brian @kilmeade (Fox News)\n\nIf Donald Trump had nothing to do with the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol why the FUCK were you TEXTING Mark Meadows on January 6 and telling him to tell Trump to send his soldiers home?— Don Winslow (@Don Winslow) 1639449375
WATCH: @mmfa president @GoAngelo on All In: While Ingraham, Hannity, and Kilmeade "were telling Donald Trump he needed to call off his supporters" they told the public the insurrectionists were "actually secretly antifa or Black Lives Matter." pic.twitter.com/jLyPYxqLwB
— Madeline Peltz (@peltzmadeline) December 14, 2021
And Hannity and Ingraham were so horrified by the violence and attempted coup they saw unfolding in real time \u2014 and which was instigated by Trump \u2014 that they went on Fox the evening of Jan. 6 and blamed BLM protesters and Antifa for the Capitol siege.https://twitter.com/acyn/status/1470549199963901953\u00a0\u2026— Tim O'Brien (@Tim O'Brien) 1639450237
Fox News hosts, Hannity, Kilmeade and Ingraham were pleading with Mark Meadows to get Trump to stop the insurrection riot on Jan. 6, according to Liz Cheney.\n\nThis is powerful.pic.twitter.com/SmjY9GUcTj— Jim Roberts (@Jim Roberts) 1639441161
Ingraham is digging deep to find things to talk about other than her text messagespic.twitter.com/fSgMfBGrIh— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1639451018
Three of Fox News\u2019s most popular TV actors (Ingraham, Hannity, Kilmeade) directly texted the White House chief of staff believing they were empowered to immediately change the behavior of the president of the United States. \n\nTell me more about the liberal elite media.https://twitter.com/oliverdarcy/status/1470551957093994497\u00a0\u2026— Kevin Baron (@Kevin Baron) 1639447987
If only Hannity, Kilmeade and Ingraham had had some way of reaching out to Trump's supporters on that day, and the 340 days since, to tell them what happened was wronghttps://twitter.com/nycjim/status/1470548932480622595\u00a0\u2026— Adam Weinstein (@Adam Weinstein) 1639444434
The cynicism and dishonesty of Hannity, Eva Braun Ingraham, and all the rest is astonishing. Rupert Murdoch\u2019s 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— Steve Schmidt (@Steve Schmidt) 1639457787
Dear @IngrahamAngle & @kilmeade \n\nYour network Fox News repeatedly said ANTIFA was behind January 6.\n\nSo how come on Jan 6 you were texting Mark Meadows and not ANTIFA?\n\nHow come you were texting Donald Trump's Chief of Staff to stand down his soldiers?\n\nWhat happened to Antifa?— Don Winslow (@Don Winslow) 1639450143
Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Brian Kilmeade, and many other Fox News bobbleheads were freaking out on 1/6.\n\nThey were all texting Mark Meadows telling him Trump is destroying his legacy.\n\nThen they spend the next year downplaying it.\n\nWhat vile lying fascist gaslighting hypocrites.— The USA Singers (@The USA Singers) 1639444776
2/ "Hurrr durrrr Hannity pwns duh cucks" is sucker bait. Every one of them -- most ESPECIALLY Baron Tucker Von Fishsticks -- are performance artists who don't know, understand, or embrace conservatism. They're actors in Rupert's Winger Minstrel Show.— Rick Wilson (@Rick Wilson) 1639451527
Watch CNN's coverage of the Fox News scandal:
