January 6 Committee Is Trying to Win Over Fox News Viewers

The House panel investigating the January 6 Capitol riot is trying to reach a more varied audience for its next public hearing by scheduling it to air midday on Wednesday, rather than during the primetime slot.

Committee member Representative Zoe Lofgren told CNN on Sunday that moving the hearing to a daytime slot means it's more likely that Fox News, which averaged 1.4 million total viewers from August 29 to September 4, would air it for their viewers.

"It's true, it's not in prime-time. I would note, however, that in the past Fox News does play our hearings if the hearing is in the daytime," Lofgren said. "That's a factor in reaching an audience that is not watching CNN."

Fox News, the highest-rated cable news station in America and a favorite among conservatives, did not carry the primetime hearings held by the committee over the summer.

Instead, the network opted to stick with its high-profile nightly lineup of Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham—who have presented a different picture of the Capitol riot from what the panel has delivered—and left the live coverage of the hearings to its digital sites and Fox Business Network, a sister network with a much smaller viewership.

The move has been scrutinized by Fox critics, like former chief political correspondent Carl Cameron, who told The New York Times in June, "To walk away from what is surely going to be on every cable station and the networks, it's impossible to believe it's anything other than trying to make a statement by not showing up."

On Wednesday, the panel is scheduled to convene again for what is expected to be its last public hearing before it releases the final report on its findings and be "more sweeping than some of the other hearings," according to panel member Representative Adam Schiff.

"It will tell the story about a key element of Donald Trump's plot to overturn the election. And the public will certainly learn things it hasn't seen before, but it will also understand information it already has in a different context by seeing how it relates to other elements of this plot," Schiff said on CNN.

Since the last hearing in July, the FBI conducted a search warrant at former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago home and New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump for fraud.

Schiff said it's his feelings that the committee should make criminal referrals regarding Trump's behavior in connection to January 6, but that any referral will need a unanimous agreement among panel makers.

"We will get to a decision as a committee, and we will all abide by that decision, and I will join our committee members if they feel differently," he said.

Newsweek reached out to Fox News for comment.