“Mark,the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home,” Ingraham wrote. “This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy.”

Kilmeade echoed that concern,texting Meadows:“Please,get him on TV. Destroying everything you have accomplished.”

Sean Hannity texted:“Can he make a statement? Ask people to leave the Capitol.”

Ingraham’s text came in contrast to what she said on her Fox News program in the hours after the attack,when she promoted the false theory that members of antifa were involved.

“From a chaotic Washington tonight,earlier today the Capitol was under siege by people who can only be described as antithetical to the MAGA movement,” Ingraham said on the January 6 episode.

“Now,they were likely not all Trump supporters,and there are some reports that antifa sympathisers may have been sprinkled throughout the crowd.”

Ingraham went on to cite “legitimate concerns about how these elections were conducted”,while adding that any dissatisfaction with the vote should not have resulted in violence.

Hannity,a one-time informal adviser to Trump,condemned the attack,saying at the top of his show,“Today’s perpetrators must be arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.” He also said that the nation must do more to protect law enforcement and political representatives.

On that matter of who was responsible,Hannity said,“I don’t care if the radical left,radical right — I don’t know who they are. They’re not people I would support. So how were officials not prepared? We got to answer that question. How did they allow the Capitol building to be breached in what seemed like less than a few minutes?”

He also brought up the 2020 election,the results of which had been questioned by Trump and his supporters in the weeks before the riot,although there was no evidence of widespread fraud.

“Our election,frankly,was a train wreck,” Hannity said. “Eighty-three per cent,according to Gallup,of Republicans,and millions of others,do not have faith in these election results. You can’t just snap your finger and hope that goes away.”

Representatives for Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the 11 months since the attack,the Fox News hosts who appear in the morning and in the prime-time hours have often played down the events of that day,with some likening it to the violence during the widespread protests against racism and police tactics in the summer of 2020.

Last month,Tucker Carlson,the Fox News host with the largest audience,produced athree-part documentary,Patriot Purge,for the Fox Nation streaming platform that contained the false claim that the January 6 attack was a “false flag” operation meant to demonise the political right.

More than 500 people have been arrested over the pro-Trump riot at the Capitol. Carlson falsely claimed in the documentary that “January 6 is being used as a pretext to strip millions of Americans — disfavoured Americans — of their core constitutional rights.”

Chris Wallace,the long-time anchor,resigned from Fox News on Sunday after 18 years to take a job at CNN. Before his abrupt exit,he expressed concern in talks with management about the documentary.

Two long-time Fox News contributors,conservative commentators Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes,quit last month in protest at the Carlson special,calling it “totally outrageous” and saying that it “will lead to violence”.

The House vote to hold Meadows in contempt of Congress sends the matter to the US attorney’s office in Washington,where it will be up to prosecutors to decide whether to present the case to a grand jury for possible criminal charges.

Meadows could face up to one year behind bars on each charge if convicted.

This article originally appeared inThe New York Times.

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