We all knew Sean Hannity was doing the bidding of the Trump administration. We found out Monday he was doing it literally.
CNN on Monday published a slew of text messages between Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and prominent Republican lawmakers and conservative figures — including Hannity. The Jan. 6 committee has already released several texts exchanged between Meadows and Hannity, but the ones released Monday are particularly striking, demonstrating just how firmly the White House had Hannity secured under its thumb.
“Hey. NC gonna be ok?” Hannity wrote Meadows last Nov. 3, asking whether Meadows’ home state of North Carolina was going to go to Trump.
“Stress every vote matters,” Meadows replied. “Get out and vote. On radio.”
“Yes sir,” Hannity wrote. “On it. Any place in particular we need a push”
Meadows pointed to Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Nevada, in addition to North Carolina. “Got it,” Hannity responded. “Everywhere.”
Hannity happy to take orders on what to say on his show pic.twitter.com/tuidtVWfF7
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 25, 2022
This trove of text messages, which also includes Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) pushing for Trump to institute martial law and noting that Trump supporters had “no other choice” but to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6, is only the latest in a series of revelations to come out of the thousands of messages Meadows provided to the Jan. 6 committee. It’s been reported in recent weeks that Meadows received texts from GOP lawmakers, Donald Trump Jr., and Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, urging him to help overturn the election.
Hannity was one of several Fox News hosts who wrote to Meadows on Jan. 6 urging him to get Trump to call off his supporters. He also texted Meadows on Jan. 19, sharing a link to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) saying in a speech on the Senate floor that the deadly riot was “provoked by the President and other powerful people.”
“Well this is as bad as this can get,” Hannity wrote.
Twitter user @acyn responded to CNN’s report by pointing out that Hannity has in the past claimed he is “not told what to say” and that “we have always been independent and follow our on path on this show.”
Hannity: I don’t vet the information on this program that I give out pic.twitter.com/xZPdHcR1Bh
— Acyn (@Acyn) December 1, 2020
We now have pretty hard evidence that Hannity’s highly rated show was basically state-run television while the former president was in office.
Source: RollingStone
