Donald Trump’s son and a prominent presenter on conservative Fox News has urged the ex-president to step in and stop his supporters from storming Congress.
Several reports American media.
Fox News anchors sent several text messages to Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff, while the dramatic attack on Capitol Hill continued for several hours after the evening of January 6 this year.
Donald Trump Jr. did the same. He wrote the following in a text message to Meadow:
“He has to condemn this nonsense ASAP.” (He should condemn this nonsense as quickly as possible.)
Meanwhile, Laura Ingraham, presenter of the Fox News talk show “Ingraham’s Corner”, shortly afterwards made the false claim that left-wing antifa members were behind the storm.
While TV celebrity Sean Hannity, who leads the current affairs show The Sean Hannity Show, called the 2020 election a disaster — an explanation for the storm itself.
The text messages were posted on Monday. It happened before the committee investigating the attack on Capitol Hill decided – by a 9-0 vote – to recommend that Mark Meadows be charged with contempt of Congress. He writes Washington Post.
The text messages Meadows received are part of a massive amount of 9,000 documents that Meadows voluntarily handed over to the commission investigating the storm. He later writes that he has ended his cooperation with the investigators New York times.
In addition to Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity, Fox & Friends director Brian Kilmead also sent Meadow a text message asking him to persuade Trump to get out and asking his supporters to stop the storm.
Ingraham: ‘He’s destroying his legacy’
Ingraham wrote the following in an SMS:
“Mark, the president has to tell the people on the Capitol they have to go home. This hurts us all. It’s destroying his legacy.”
The Kilmeade message had roughly the same content:
“Please make it appear on TV. It destroys everything you have accomplished.”
Follow Sean Hannity:
“Can he make a statement? Ask the people to leave the Capitol.”
To the extent there should have been any doubt, the text messages show that many of those close to Trump — from his eldest son to his Fox News supporters — were fully aware of what was happening in the dramatic hours of January. 6. And that they were trying to pressure Meadows, and possibly Trump as well, to intervene.
Ingraham’s call to Meadows is in stark contrast to what she said on her own TV show in the hours after the attack. She then made the false claim that Antifa sympathizers were a central force behind the attack:
“From Chaotic Washington Tonight: Earlier today, the Capitol was under siege by people who can only be described as opponents of the Make America Great Again movement,” Ingraham said on his special.
“Maybe not all Trump supporters are, and there are reports of a number of Antifa sympathizers in the crowd,” she said.
Ingraham said at the time that there were “legitimate concerns about how the election would be conducted”. But, she added, in any case, this resentment should not turn into violence.
Hannity: ‘The election was a disaster’
Hannity has a past as an unofficial advisor to Trump. He condemned the attack and said the following in his January 6 presentation:
“The perpetrators must be arrested and fully prosecuted,” he added.
He also said the United States should do more to ensure law and order and politicians are better protected.
Hannity said of who was responsible:
I am not interested in the radical left or the radical right. I do not know who they are. These are not people I support. Why were the officials not prepared? We must get an answer to this question. Why did government officials allow the attack on the Capitol and the destruction of barricades within minutes? “
He also touched on the 2020 election that Trump and his supporters erroneously claimed had been “stolen” in the weeks leading up to the uprising:
“The election was, frankly, a disaster,” Hannity said.
83 percent of Republicans and millions of people do not trust the election result. You can’t tap your finger hoping it will just pass.”
No one at Fox News has yet commented on posted text messages from their presenters.
Trump did not interfere
Trump failed to intervene when his supporters stormed the Capitol. Only late in the evening, after the attack had lasted for many hours, did he post a video, but did not condemn the actions:
I feel their pain. “I know you’re injured,” Trump said.
“We had a choice that stole from us. It was a landslide for us and everyone knows it. Especially the other side.”
he added:
“It was a fraudulent choice, but we can’t play properly for these people. We must rest in peace. So go home. We love you. You are so special.”
“Coffee trailblazer. Certified pop culture lover. Infuriatingly humble gamer.”
