now a cnn exclusive. dozens of newly revealed text messages between fox host sean hannity and former president trump s white house chief of staff mark meadows provide real time insight into the role hannity played in the days and weeks after the 2020 election. cnn s special correspondent jamie gangel has more. reporter: some of those messages are between mark meadows and sean hannity. he is one of the most frequent texters in the logs. what we see is hannity both giving advice to the white house and also getting guidance from meadows. just for context, hannity doesn t see himself as a journalist. he sees himself as a tv host and entertainer. he is certainly someone trump considers a friend and who has been called the shadow chief of
entity, the fact that it s not related to his news gathering activity is also important. most trump allies have refused to engage with the committee. ones at this level, like mark meadows or steve bannon. assuming that hannity refuses, and we don t know what he s going to do. i should be clearer with that. most people that the committee has asked to speak to have cooperated, but some top-level people have not. if hannity doesn t cooperate, is there a strong case for criminal contempt of congress? executive privilege doesn t apply but at the same time, he is a member of the press. and even if the committee is saying, hey, we re not trying to get involved with your press gathering, your news-gathering operation, that comes very close if not going over a line in terms of a journalist talking to people in the white house. so on one hand, jake, what
he s a performer, a guy who, you know, comes on the air, and basically spouts an opinion and interestingly, you know who doesn t think that sean hannity is a journalist, sean hannity because he said on his radio show in 2016, he said, literally, i am not a journalist. i am a talk show host, and i don t think dr. phil would be saying he s a journalist and deserves the protections of a journalist. it s interesting to see how they counter this. i don t think they can claim he s a journalist now. the committee is asking for volu voluntary cooperation. it s not a subpoena. if hannity doesn t cooperate, though, and i m not sure why he would for a whole bunch of just public relations issues and it appeals to his audience that it doesn t, do you think they would subpoena him? that s a good question, anderson, and i don t think we know the answer to that yet. it s incredibly important the committee start in this way. they have to start with the least inclusive method which is
dr. oz is trying the most obvious route. he s a tv star with a day job. and he was changed in his positions over and over. and any story, any negative thing seen about him in the media he is trying to say the s fake news and the regular republican. so the problem it doesn t seem to be working. that quote you said from that republican is something that a lot of them are saying. they re not so sure about dr. oz. especially when you have david mccormick, likely to be seen as a maga darling. to have the old trump acolytes on his team. that is going to be the struggle for dr. oz. you can t just be a celebrity and then all of a sudden become the next donald trump. there are other things that have to happen. him going on hannity doesn t seem to be enough. you have lots of other aspects of the republican party and the
to me. i mean, it shouldn t be but it is. it s always been extraordinary with him. remember, anderson, that he actually campaigned for trump. he was out publicly campaigning for trump. and this is a guy allegedly on a news network. and i think it s going to be interesting, isn t it, because he probably will try to come back with some sort of i need first amendment protects as a journalist and really, he s never been a journalist. he s he s a performer. he is a guy who comes on the air and basically spouts an opinion. and interestingly, you know who doesn t think that sean hannity a journalist? sean hannity because he said on his radio show and and in 16, 2016, he said literally, i am not a journalist, i am a talk-show host. and i don t think dr. phil would be, like, saying he is a journalist and and deserve protections of a journalist. so it is going to be very interesting to see how they counter this because i don t think they can claim he is really a journalist now. andr