Newsmax Host Grills Mark Meadows on Jan. 6 Text Messages From Fox News Hosts and Don Jr.
The bombshell text messages never came up during Fox News interviews with Meadows on Monday. But a Newsmax host went there.
Yuri Gripas/Reuters
Unlike Fox News hosts on Monday night, Newsmax host Rob Schmitt didn’t hold back in asking former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows about text messages he received on Jan. 6 urging him to make the then-president halt the Capitol riot.
“They’ve got reports of text messages [from the Jan. 6 committee] you gave them that show Fox [News] hosts saying, ‘Hey, you gotta get this under control, Trump needs to say something. Don Jr. saying something,’” the Newsmax host said, before asking Meadows: “What’s your response to all this tonight?”
Trump’s former chief of staff fired back, claiming his messages were “weaponize[d]” by the House select committee. “We’ve tried very hard, in a very transparent and accommodating way, to share non-privileged information,” Meadows responded. “And what we found out tonight is that not only did that just get disregarded, but then they tried to weaponize text messages, selectively leaked them, to put out a narrative that the president didn’t act.”
While Fox News' primetime stars are ignoring the texts they sent to Mark Meadows, News anchor Rob Schmitt -- while saying the story is "grossly exaggerated" -- does ask Meadows tonight about the texts.
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) December 14, 2021
Meadows says the committee "tried to weaponize text messages selectively." pic.twitter.com/W5OELNMu2z
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