Sean Hannity had a surprising analysis of Thursday’s primetime hearing hosted by the select committee investigating January 6 after it ended.
The longtime ally of Donald Trump declared during his show that the former president came out of the event, which showcased never-before-seen gripping footage of rioters viciously assaulting members of law enforcement and bashing through windows, looking “good”.
That’s despite lawmakers on the panel stating clearly that the ex-president had done nothing during the attack to deploy law enforcement backup to the Hill.
"This is now about a security failure of incredible magnitude and they don't even seem to want to talk about it. The one person that looks good is Donald Trump,” said Mr Hannity during a discussion with right-wing journalist John Solomon.
Mr Hannity has somewhat of a personal perspective on the situation given that his own text messages to the White House and others in the president’s orbit before, during, and after the riot have become evidence that the committee is using to form its narrative.
The Fox host and close confidante of the 45th president was texting allies of the president in December of 2020 that he did “NOT see January 6 happening the way [Donald Trump] is being told”, apparently referring to his own doubts about the plan to persuade Mike Pence to interfere in the certification of the election or even the mass gathering of Trump supporters in DC itself which Mr Trump had personally encouraged via his Twitter account.
During the riot itself, he pleaded with Mr Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows: “He’s got to condemn this s*** ASAP. The Capitol Police tweet is not enough.”
“We need an Oval Office address. He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand,” Mr Hannity wrote at the time.
Now, like many allies of the president in Congress and the media, Mr Hannity has taken the position that the riot was not as serious as law enforcement on the scene, lawmakers who feared for their lives during the attack, and journalists caught in the middle have all depicted in the year since the attack. Mr Hannity’s rewriting of that day began just hours after the attack, while many Republicans in Congress were still expressing horror about the day’s events.
"I always distinguish the 99% that were peaceful today,” he told his viewers that night. He also condemned the violence that did occur, stating: “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.”
The January 6 committee held its first hearing Thursday evening and plans to hold a handful more in the month ahead. The first hearing consisted of a considerable amount of unreleased footage from that day, which left many in the room shaken and visibly uncomfortable.
Following the publication of Mr Hannity’s text messages by the committee last year, the Fox host condemned Rep Liz Cheney, the Republican vice chair of the panel, telling his viewers: "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.”
"I've always been consistent on January 6th and every other night,” he added at the time. "If you'd finally turn off fake news CNN once in a while and maybe watch this program, you would know all of this."
