New Texts Reveal Fox Hosts Coordinated With Trump White House, Bartiromo Sent In Trump Interview Questions

More texts between Mark Meadows and Fox News hosts published by CNN on Friday further detail the link between former President Donald Trump’s White House and the popular network – particularly surrounding the 2020 presidential election and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

CNN notes that multiple Fox News hosts reached out to Meadows, including Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Brian Kilmeade, and Maria Bartiromo also texted with Meadows. Tucker Carlson texted with Meadows once, but to ask a question while researching his show and the two did not connect.

While Ingraham and Kilmeade largely expressed frustration with Trump’s messaging around the Jan. 6 attack, Bartiromo can be seen sending questions the “planned to ask Trump” an hour before he gave his first interview since the election on November 29th.

Bartiromo texted Meadows at 9:21 a.m, as reported by CNN:

Hi the public wants to know he will fight this. They want to hear a path to victory. & he’s in control.

1Q You’ve said MANY TIMES THIS ELECTION IS RIGGED… And the facts are on your side. Let’s start there. What are the facts? Characterize what took place here. Then I will drill down on the fraud including the statistical impossibilities of Biden magic (federalist). Pls make sure he doesn’t go off on tangents. We want to know he is strong he is a fighter & he will win. This is no longer about him. This is about ????. I will ask him about big tech & media influencing ejection as well Toward end I’ll get to GA runoffs & then vaccines.

Trump then called into Bartiromo’s show, Sunday Morning Futures, at 10:12 a.m. CNN notes “her line of questions mirrored much of what she laid out in the text message.” Mediaite’s Joe DePaolo wrote about Bartiromo’s interview at the time declaring the “farcical interview with Trump marks the end of her days as a journalist.”

DePaolo noted of her line of questioning, in which she set up Trump to push allegations of election fraud in 2020:

Like a circus performer sawing a lady in half, Fox News and its top personalities have painstakingly cut their operation into two separate parts — news and opinion. But Maria Bartiromo has pulled off the unthinkable. Somehow, she has managed to join those two sides. News and opinion, bound together by one dishonest anchor. A truly remarkable feat.

Hannity too weighed in on Trump’s debunked allegations that the 2020 election was stolen. He wrote to Meadows:

I’ve had my team digging into the numbers. There is no way Biden got these numbers. Just mathematically impossible. It’s so sad for this country they can pull this off in 2020. We need a major breakthrough, a video, something.

“You’re exactly right. Working on breakthrough,” Meadows replied.

“Ok. Would be phenomenal,” Hannity shot back.

However, as evidence remained elusive Hannity grew frustrated with Trump’s legal team making wild claims and losing court battles. Hannity wrote, “ “You fighting is fine. The fing lunatics is NOT fine. They are NOT helping him. I’m fed up with those people.”

CNN reported that of the 2,319 text messages to and from Mark Meadows the network has obtained, Hannity “stands out” among media figures for texting Meadows 82 times.

Hannity’s texts to Meadows asking how he can help on Election Day 2020 were previously reported by CNN, including one in which Hannity replied, “Yes sir,” to Trump’s then-chief of staff. But, new texts show Hannity’s deep relationship with Meadows spanning from conversations about Fox News itself, Trump’s media strategy, and Hannity’s frustration with the extreme figures surrounding the then president.

“You also need to spend at least half your time doing business with us,” Hannity texted Meadows. “And I’m serious. Did u ever talk to Fox. I’ve been at war with them,” Hannity wrote on December 12th, presumably discussing Meadow’s future after the Trump administration.

“I agree. We can make a powerful team,” Meadows replied. “I did not talk with (Fox News CEO) Suzanne (Scott) because I got tied up with pardons but I will make sure I connect. You are a true patriot and I am so very proud of you! Your friendship means a great deal to me.”

“Feeling is mutual,” Hannity said.

Read the full report on the text messages here