Jan. 6 Panel Bares Bid By Fox News Hosts For Trump To Stop Mob

As a mob of Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows received text messages from Fox News hosts and the president’s son urging him to convince Trump to issue a statement condemning the violence, Caitlin Dickson reported for Yahoo News.

Photo Insert: Donald Trump and Mark Meadows on Air Force One

The text messages are among thousands of documents Meadows has turned over to the committee, according to Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who revealed the messages Monday evening as the panel gathered to pass a resolution to hold Meadows in contempt of Congress.

Cheney said Meadows, who served as Trump’s chief of staff during his final months in office, turned over thousands of emails and text messages as part of a previous agreement to cooperate with the panel, but he has refused to testify, despite being ordered to do so by a subpoena. Meadows’s attorney said the former top White House aide believes his testimony is protected by executive privilege.

“Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy,” Cheney said as she read out loud a text message from Fox News host Laura Ingraham.

“Please get him on TV. Destroying everything you have accomplished,” wrote Brian Kilmeade of “Fox & Friends.” Sean Hannity, another Fox News star, asked if Trump could “make a statement” asking “people to leave the Capitol.

Cheney also described texts Meadows received from Donald Trump Jr. similarly urging the president to take action. “He’s got to condemn this s*** ASAP,” Trump’s eldest son wrote to Meadows, who replied: “I'm pushing it hard. I agree.”

Cheney, a prominent GOP critic of Trump’s actions that day, concluded: “These text messages leave no doubt the White House knew exactly what was happening at the Capitol.”

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