Laura Ingraham worried about further violence after Capitol riot, newly released text message reveals
‘Everyone needs to calm down and pray for our country and for those who lost their lives last week,’ Fox News host wrote in message to Trump chief of staff
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Your support makes all the difference.Fox News host Laura Ingraham worried about further violence after the Capitol riot on 6 January last year, a newly released text message has revealed.
Six days after the insurrection, on 12 January, Ingraham wrote to the then-Chief of Staff in the Trump White House, Mark Meadows, to ask him to urge then-President Donald Trump to speak to his supporters and dissuade them from mounting armed protests against the election results at state capitols across the country.
“Remarks on camera discouraging protest at state capit[o]ls esp[ecially] with weapons will be well advised given how hot the situation is,” she wrote. “[E]veryone needs to calm down and pray for our country and for those who lost their lives last week.”
The House Select Committee investigating 6 January revealed the text message on Wednesday in a letter to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, in which they requested that he work with the committee. The California Republican rejected the request.
According to multiple reports, Fox News hosts acted as unofficial outside advisers to Mr Trump and his administration.
Texts disclosed last month showed how Fox News hosts tried to urge Mr Meadows to get Mr Trump to call off his supporters during the violent insurrection.
“Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home,” Ingraham wrote to Mr Meadows.
Fellow Fox News host Sean Hannity asked the chief of staff: “Can he make a statement? Ask people to leave the Capitol?”
Brian Kilmeade said the riot was “destroying everything you have accomplished” and pushed Mr Meadows to get Mr Trump to appear on TV to tell his supporters to stand down.
The Independent has reached out to Fox News for comment.
A recent report alleges that at least one Fox News host became jealous after seeing some of their colleagues gain greater access to Mr Trump during his time as president.
The Washington Post also reported that the access afforded to some individuals routinely frustrated White House staffers, who voiced concerns over the influence some Fox hosts were having on the administration as a whole.
The Post claims that Mr Trump’s former White House chief of staff, John Kelly, instructed White House staffers to monitor Fox News, as it would help them to better anticipate Mr Trump’s future moves.
Further to this, the outlet claims that Lou Dobbs was observed especially keenly, for his assumed influence on the former president during his first year in office.
“When [John] Kelly could not watch the prime-time Fox shows himself, he would ask other staffers to monitor them, and he would scour the White House call logs for the names of Fox News personalities,” the Washington Post report states.
“Jeanine Pirro, several Trump aides said, often grew irate if the former president did not appear on her show frequently enough in her view, especially if he had been on [Sean] Hannity’s show several times prior,” the report added.
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