Hayes continued after the break with The Nation's Elie Mystal:
Chris Hayes documents Sean Hannity and Fox News repeatedly pushing lie about Trump and January 6
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From the July 27, 2022, edition of MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes
CHRIS HAYES (HOST): So one of the questions that has lingered in the year and a half since the violent attack on January 6th is why the Capitol Police were basically left alone to defend themselves and all the lawmakers inside the building, not to mention the seat of the U.S. government. How could it be that there was no plan to support them ahead of a day that Donald Trump teased would be, quote, wild? And why did it take so long for backup to arrive on the 6th when it was clear the Capitol Police were overwhelmed? We saw it on television. Where was the National Guard?
Well, beginning that very afternoon, the Trump White House attempted to tamp down those concerns with a big lie. Hours into the attack, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted at President Trump's direction, the National Guard is on the way. Not true. Just a lie. Not true. Donald Trump never directed the National Guard to go to the Capitol. Maybe she was mistaken, but in the days before or on January 6yj, didn't happen. That did not stop Trump himself from then lying on January 7.
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HAYES: We now know, thanks to testimony to the January 6 committee, Donald Trump's staff had to convince him to make that speech, the January 7th one, in the first place. And when he finally agreed, practically the first thing out of his mouth was that lie. I deploy the National Guard.
It had already been debunked. The New York Times' reporting on the evening of January six that Trump, quote, rebuffed and resisted requests to mobilize the National Guard. And in the end, it was Vice President Mike Pence who approved the order to deploy.
That did not stop Trump and his allies and his staff from repeating the lie over and over again.
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HAYES: A few weeks after that, Trump said it again in an interview on Fox News, this time trying to dump some of the blame on Nancy Pelosi.
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HAYES: Of course, that new part also completely untrue – just fabricated whole cloth. Trump has continued to spread this life. Even recently on his fake Twitter platform, falsely claiming he recommended, offered thousands of troops and Pelosi refused them. He will not stop repeating this. Even now, eighteen months later.
Then, of course, there's the cable news echo chamber for Trump's pseudo-alibi.
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HAYES: Sean Hannity was still doing this as recently as last month. According to Media Matters, he pushed the lie hundreds of times in total, at least 43 episodes of his show, including when he asked Donald Trump's acting secretary of defense at the time Chris Miller – and Chris Miller's chief of staff Kash Patel, to confirm they heard Trump authorized the use of National Guard troops before the 6th.
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HAYES: Now there's no law against lying to Fox News viewers and if there was, there would not have a network. But there is a law against lying under oath. So what story do you think? Chris Miller, the guy who told Sean Hannity last month that Trump ordered the Guard to be deployed before the sixth to be ready what he told the January 6th committee. Well, the committee has released the tape. We'll play it for you next.