Fox News hosts react to the release of their texts to Mark Meadows: 'A weak attempt to smear yours truly'

During Tuesday’s primetime Fox News lineup — and 24 hours after ignoring the topic altogether — hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham reacted to the release of text messages they sent to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

The messages, read by Republican Rep. Liz Cheney in the House on Monday afternoon, revealed that the hosts urged Meadows to have then-President Trump call off the rioters and end the violence.

Hannity and Ingraham, along with colleague Brian Kilmeade, quickly received backlash for apparently blaming Trump for the riots in the private messages, while publicly trying to blame others such as Antifa and the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. On Tuesday, Hannity began by going after Cheney.

“Last night in a weak attempt to smear yours truly, and presumably I guess President Trump, Congresswoman Cheney presented one of my text messages from Jan. 6th to Mark Meadows,” Hannity began, later adding. “And by the way, where is the outrage in the media over my private text messages being released again publicly? Do we believe in privacy in this country? Apparently not.” (Despite years of being in the media, Hannity seemingly pretended not to understand that his texts to public officials were part of the public record as opposed to some kind of privileged communication.)

The longtime conservative radio and TV host, who also served as a special advisor to former President Trump, was also quick on Tuesday to lump the attack on the Capitol in with other events in recent years.

“All riots are bad. All of them. And on this program, we strongly condemned the violence on Jan. 6, just like we condemned all of the violent riots from the summer of 2020. We have remained and will be forever consistent,” Hannity said.

Along with comparing the attack to the summer of 2020, Hannity once again suggested an investigation into Nancy Pelosi, given her role as the head of Capitol police.

Meanwhile, despite the content of her texts, where Ingraham complained to Meadows that the riot “is hurting all of us” and “destroying” Trump’s legacy, she struck a different tone on her show, questioning who was to blame for the riots, while generally downplaying the severity of the events as a whole.

“Both publicly and privately. I said what I believe. That the breach of the capitol on Jan. 6 was a terrible thing. Crimes were committed, some people were unfairly hounded and persecuted and prosecuted. But It was not an insurrection,” Ingraham said. “To say anything different is beyond dishonest, and ignores the fact of that day.”

Hannity airs at 9 p.m. and The Ingraham Angle airs at 10 p.m. weeknights on Fox News.

Watch how host Steve Harvey handled yet another gaffe at the Miss Universe pageant:

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