According to text messages obtained by CNN, Fox News host Sean Hannity regularly planned talking points for his show and discussed efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results with a former White House chief of staff.
In this August 7, 2019, photo, Fox News host Sean Hannity speaks during a taping of his show. In this file photo, Frank Franklin II.
CNN reports that between Election Day and the inauguration of President Joe Biden, Sean Hannity was very supportive of strategies to overturn the election.
On November 29th, the night Biden won, Hannity said that it was "mathematically impossible" and that Trump's team needed a "major breakthrough" to back up fraud claims.
As time went on, the Fox News host became increasingly frustrated, as he lamented that former President Donald Trump was relying heavily on bogus conspiracy theories.
According to reports, on January 5, Hannity expressed concern about plans for Vice President Mike Pence to block the certification of Biden's win. It's not clear if he expected Pence to overturn the election.
After Trump supporters went to the Capitol on January 6, Hannity told him he couldn't mention the election again. According to CNN, it has never been done before.
I did not have a good call with him today, and I don't like not knowing what to do. Is there an idea?
Trump has ignored the advice of Hannity and sent out statements on a daily basis for more than a year, claiming widespread fraud cost him the election.
On December 6, 2020, after Wallace insisted Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar refer to Biden as president-elect, Hannity took jabs at his own network.
The records were handed over to the committee on January 6th, before he stopped cooperating with the investigation into the Capitol rioting. In December, the committee made public the text messages that were sent by a group of Fox News personalities urging Trump to tell his supporters to go home on the day of the riot. In January, the committee asked Hannity to give information as part of its probe, but it doesn't appear he has given any records.
Before Maria Bartiromo questioned Trump in his first interview after Election Day, CNN released texts between the two. Bartiromo sent a preview of her questioning along with a request to make sure he doesn't go off on tangents.
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