WHOOPS

Hannity’s Tale of Trump’s Jan. 6 National Guard Order Blows Up in His Face

The longtime Trump confidant had pushed this flimsy claim dozens of times on both his primetime TV show and daily radio program.

For months, Fox News star Sean Hannity has led his network’s charge to push the flimsy claim that former President Donald Trump ordered thousands of National Guard troops to secure the U.S. Capitol in the days leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection. This assertion, meant to undermine the Jan. 6 House committee, was pushed by Hannity on his primetime TV show 43 times and his daily radio program 48 times, according to liberal watchdog Media Matters. The committee, however, refuted this claim when it shared testimony from former acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller saying Trump gave no such order. “I was never given any direction or order or knew of any plans of that nature,” Miller said in the video released on Tuesday. “There was no direct—there was no order from the President.” The ex-Trump official added: “We obviously had plans for activating more folks, but that was not anything more than contingency planning. There was no official message traffic or anything of that nature.” Trump, meanwhile, insisted just last month that he “suggested & offered” up to 20,000 National Guard troops be deployed. Other defense and security officials, however, have testified that Trump never asked for a law enforcement response to the attack.