What we learned from the Hannity texts released by the Jan. 6 committee
What we learned from the Hannity texts released by the Jan. 6 committee
They want Hannity to testify. And they've got receipts.
Text messages released Tuesday by the House January 6 committee show once again that Fox News host Sean Hannity was basically functioning as an unofficial adviser to the Trump White House, but we already knew that. For purposes of today’s newsletter, I want to focus on what’s new, and I’ll start with the text that says something fascinating about Trump’s mental state after the January 6 scheme failed, and it became clear he had little choice but to cede power to Joe Biden.
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On January 10, 2021, four days after the Capitol attack, Hannity texted White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and made it sound like Trump was in a pitiful state and needed an intervention. He wrote:
Guys, we have a clear path to land the plane in 9 days. He can’t mention the election ever again. Ever. I did not have a good call with him today. And worse, I’m not sure what is left to do or say, and I don’t [feel] like it’s truly understood. Ideas?
This is one instance where Trump didn’t follow Hannity’s advice, considering he spent the following year incessantly lying about the election being stolen from him.
In a Tuesday statement containing Hannity’s text messages, January 6 committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) hint that the above message is evidence Trump’s authoritarian machinations didn’t end with January 6.
“You appear to have had a discussion with President Trump on January 10th that may have raised a number of specific concerns about his possible actions in the days before the January 20th inaugural,” they write.
Hannity’s text isn’t the first inking we’ve had that Trump was at least daydreaming of coup-like schemes to keep power even after January 6. Recall that on January 15, MyPillow CEO, conspiracist, and GOP donor Mike Lindell was photographed at the White House with notes for his meeting with Trump that included the line, “martial law if necessary.”
Trump’s post-insurrection mental state isn’t the only newsy tidbit from the newly released text messages. Another from December 31 suggests that Hannity had foreknowledge of what was planned for January 6, thought it was likely to do Trump more harm than good, and was advising Trump to essentially take the L, cede power, and head to Florida.
Both that message and one sent on January 5 hint at another new wrinkle — that the office of White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, who reportedly lobbied internally against efforts to overthrow the election, was resisting plans to try to pressure Pence into rejecting the election results on January 6.
“Im very worried about the next 48 hours,” Hannity texted Meadows on January 5, a comment diametrically opposed to what he said on TV and on radio later that day.
“[The rioters] were there to peacefully protest. Then we had the reports that groups like antifa, other radical groups — I don't know the names of all of them — that they were there to cause trouble,” Hannity said on his radio show. Right-wing violence tourists — some, like the Proud Boys, directly associated with the Trump campaign — had descended on DC to pick fights over the election results twice in interim since the election.
As far as Hannity is concerned, the texts make it seem like he was discouraging Trump from trying to overturn the election results, but the messages are too ambiguous to exonerate Hannity by themselves. The committee made it clear it hopes he’ll clear things up by agreeing to testify.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, during his Tuesday night Fox News show, Hannity completely ignored the January 6 committee’s request for his cooperation (and his text messages) and instead focused on petty attacks on the Biden administration.
Meanwhile, a lawyer from Hannity’s lawyer, Jay Sekulow — who’s at least the second lawyer Trump and Hannity have shared — was noncommittal about whether he’ll end up cooperating with the committee.
While it might be tempting to give Hannity credit for being an unlikely voice of reason during those uncertain days preceding Biden’s inauguration, it’s important to remember that while he was saying one thing privately, he was singing a very different tune on his TV show, where he was calling for a “do over” of the election, citing the same baseless claims of irregularities that the Trump wanted to use a pretext to annul his loss.
As Mikey Kay put it on Twitter, “the interesting bit here is Hannity’s voice of reason off camera, and the pushing of conspiracy theories and unabated support for Trump on camera. The views we see on Hannity’s show are clearly not his personal views.”
The Joe Manchin nightmare continues
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) made headlines on December 19 when he went on Fox News and drove a dagger into President Biden’s agenda, announcing he wouldn’t support Biden’s signature $1.75 trillion Build Back Better legislation for reasons that, taken on their face, didn’t add up.
If there were any hopes Manchin would return from the holiday break and express openness to supporting voting rights legislation or a scaled down version of BBB, they were quickly dashed on Tuesday. Maybe. Or maybe not. Who knows.
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Manchin gave a news conference indicating he’s still both for and against the president’s agenda depending on when you talk to him, what piece of punditry he most recently read, and what statement of his you focus on.
Asked if he’s open to the idea of changing the filibuster rules to pass voting rights legislation, Manchin said “it’s a heavy lift,” but added that “I just believe that a bedrock of democracy is voting,” then triangulated by saying “I’m talking [but] I’m not agreeing to any of this.”
Watch and try to make sense of this word salad for yourself.
Asked later about BBB, Manchin suggested he’s now more reluctant than ever to support it because of something something N95 masks.
I’d love to never waste another brain cell trying to make sense of Manchin and his barely coherent, shifting positions. Unfortunately, his vote is absolutely necessary to getting meaningful legislation through a 50/50 Senate where it’s largely taken for granted that the top GOP priority is kneecapping the president.
Aaron, has Fox News addressed the Hannity texts? Seems they're quite silent about them. Yet, when Hannity appeared onstage at a Trump rally they put out a statement about it. That statement said, in part, "FOX News does not condone any talent participating in campaign events. This was an unfortunate distraction and has been addressed.”
I wonder if they consider Hannity's texts to Meadows "an unfortunate distraction".
Strong work!