On Monday evening, the House Jan. 6 Select Committee released texts related to the insurrection from those who attempted to connect with Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, as the attack occurred. In the texts read aloud by Rep. Liz Cheney, multiple individuals—including Fox News hosts and Donald Trump Jr.—begged for both Meadows and Trump to stop the violent attack by white supremacists and other Trump minions. Which, as we all know and my colleague Mark Sumner has reported, didn’t happen.
While Meadows refused to appear in front of the committee or testify, he did speak to Fox News about the texts—but not without insisting that the Select Committee’s move to add this evidence to the record is just another way to degrade Trump.
The texts are among the latest updates in the investigations connected to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
“These texts leave no doubt,” Cheney said. “The White House knew exactly what was happening at the Capitol.”
Seeing Cheney read the texts is a must-watch; they are not only chilling to hear, but also shed light on the true violence that took place on Jan. 6—and how completely the White House knew and understood the situation, but actively ignored it.
While Fox News has repeatedly downplayed the incident, the texts also show that they too were worried about how it would impact their brand and Trump’s “legacy.” These individuals were not peaceful protesters and these texts support statements in which Democrats and others have said this—clearly indicating that Fox News has been lying to save itself.
“Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us,” Laura Ingraham said in a text.
In another text, referring to Trump Brian Kilmeade said: “Please, get him on TV. Destroying everything you have accomplished.”
But they weren’t alone—even Trump’s son had an issue with what was going on:
“He’s got to condemn this shit ASAP. The Capitol Police tweet is not enough,” Donald Trump, Jr. said.
Of course, despite how worried they seemed at the time, there was no mention or comment from Fox News.
Watch Cheney read the texts below: