Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham react to the release of their texts during Jan. 6 attack

Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham reacted on Tuesday night, to the release of text messages they sent to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows during the January 6th attack on the Capitol.

The messages revealed that the hosts urged Meadows to have then President Trump call off the rioters and end the violence. Hannity and Ingraham, along with their colleague Brian Kilmeade, quickly received backlash for what appears to be privately blaming Trump for the riots, while publicly trying to blame others such as Antifa and speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. And on Tuesday, Hannity was quick 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 January 6th, just like we condemned all of the violent riots from the summer of 2020. We have remained and will be forever consistent,” Hannity said.

Meanwhile, despite what her texts revealed, Ingarham continued to wonder on her show who was really responsible 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 January 6th 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.”

Video Transcript

[SWOOSH]

SEAN HANNITY: 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 January 6 to Mark Meadows.

KYLIE MAR: 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 Meadows during the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

The messages, read by Congresswoman Liz Cheney of the House select Committee Monday afternoon, revealed that the hosts urged Meadows to have then-president Trump call off the rioters. They quickly received backlash for what appears to be privately blaming Trump for the riots while publicly trying to blame others like Antifa and Nancy Pelosi. And on Tuesday, Hannity was quick to lump the attack in with other events.

SEAN HANNITY: All riots obviously are bad, all of them. And on this program, we strongly condemn the violence on January 6 just like we condemned all of the violent riots from the summer of 2020. We have remained and will be forever consistent.

KYLIE MAR: Along with comparing the attack to the summer of 2020, Kennedy once again suggested an investigation into Nancy Pelosi, given her role as the head of Capitol Police. Meanwhile, despite what her texts revealed, Laura Ingraham continued to wonder who was indeed responsible for the attack while generally downplaying the severity of the events.

LAURA INGRAHAM: Both publicly and privately I said what I believe that the breach of the Capitol on January 6 was a terrible thing. Crimes were committed. Some people were unfairly hounded and persecuted and prosecuted. But it was not an insurrection.

[SOUND EFFECTS]