Hannity calls out January 6th committee, addresses texts to Mark Meadows
Sean Hannity says he condemned the Capitol riot from the start, pushes back on criticism after Rep. Liz Cheney read text messages he sent to Mark Meadows on January 6.
Sean Hannity addressed what he called Rep. Liz Cheney's "weak attempt to smear" him after the Republican lawmaker publicized a text message showing the Fox News host encouraging former President Trump to take stronger action to quell the Capitol riot on Jan. 6th.
"Last night, in a weak attempt to smear yours truly, and presumably, President Trump, Congresswoman Cheney presented one of my text messages from January 6th to Mark Meadows," Hannity told viewers in his opening monologue on Tuesday.
"I said to Mark Meadows the exact same thing I was saying live on the radio at the time and on TV that night, on January 6th and well beyond January 6th," he continued.
"I’m an honest, straightforward person. I say the same thing in private that I say to all of you."
MARK MEADOWS RESPONDS TO JAN. 6TH COMMITTEE VOTE RECOMMENDING CRIMINAL CHARGES
The House Jan. 6 committee released a series of texts from the day of the Capitol riot on Monday, including private correspondence between three Fox News hosts and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. The hosts urged Meadows to push Trump to make a forceful statement telling the rioters to leave the Capitol and take action to diffuse the violence.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows speaks to reporters outside the White House on Oct. 21, 2020. (REUTERS/Al Drago/File Picture/File Photo)
Hannity slammed liberal critics' glaring dishonesty about the matter. He said anyone who looks at his radio and evening primetime show from that day and in the days that followed will see that he condemned the violence at the Capitol.
"Every good, decent, honorable American would condemn all violence and urge any protesters that want to go down that road," Hannity told listeners on January 6th. "I see a lot of older people, moms and dads and families and stuff, but there’s always going to be the agitators and some of these groups."
Later that evening, the host again unequivocally denounced the attack in his opening monologue, telling viewers, "Let me stop here and be crystal clear. Those who truly support President Trump, those that believe they are part of the conservative movement in this country, we do not support those that commit acts of violence.
"People, we don’t believe, should be vandalizing our nation’s capital, attacking the brave men and women that keep us safe of law enforcement, and all of today’s perpetrators must be arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law," he said at the time.
Rep. Liz Cheney speaks during a hearing of the Jan. 6 committee in Washington on July 27, 2021. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images | Oliver Contreras/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"Every good and decent American we know will and must condemn what happened at the Capitol and moving forward, we have got to do a dramatically better job of protecting the innocent men and women who work there," he told viewers.
"We have to protect every single elected member of the Congress and Senate. This is not politics. They deserve to be protected. The world, our enemy, saw weakness and a vulnerability that should never exist in our nation’s Capitol. We need to fix that immediately for everybody’s sake. We all need answers on what went on a lack wrong and how did this happen and how do we prevent it from ever happening again."
"I've always been consistent on January 6th and every other night. "If you'd finally turn off fake news CNN once in a while and maybe watch this program, you would know all of this."
Hannity said Cheney knows the truth of his position but "doesn’t seem to care."
"She is interested in one thing and one thing only: smearing Trump and purging him from the party," he said.
The host also fired back at Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), the chair of the House Rules Committee, who advised Hannity publicly to use his platform to "tell the American people the truth, just like…[he was] privately texting Mark Meadows the truth on that terrible day."
"Hey, Jimbo, I have no idea who the hell you are," Hannity responded.
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"I’ve always been consistent on January 6th and every other night," he reiterated. "If you'd finally turn off fake news CNN once in a while and maybe watch this program, you would know all of this. And then you can stop speaking out of your Adam Schiff-hole."
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