CNN’s Chris Wallace ‘skeptical’ of Jan. 6 hearing

CNN anchor Chris Wallace said during the network’s coverage of the first hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, that he is “skeptical” of what the committee might produce during the prime-time proceeding.

“I’m kind of skeptical about what we’re going to see tonight and over the next couple of weeks,” Wallace said on CNN minutes before the hearing was set to begin.

Wallace said the committee had put itself in danger of falling victim to too much “hype” about its findings and “over-selling” what they have to tell the American people about the attack.

“You’ve got Jamie Raskin, one of the members of the committee, saying ‘this is going to blow the roof off the House,’ you’ve got Adam Kinzinger saying ‘It’s going to change history,” Wallace said.

The former Fox News anchor, who recently left that network for CNN to join its now-shuttered streaming service, said news of the committee hiring a former top executive at ABC News as an adviser on media and messaging may not work in the panel’s favor.

“I think that’s a bad look both for the committee and the mainstream media to seem that they are hand in glove with each other,” Wallace said.

Wallace, the longtime host of Fox News Sunday, has said he left the conservative cable channel after working there had become “unsustainable” particularly as it related to its primetime opinion programming.

Fox has taken criticism from Democrats and media pundits this week for its decision not to air continuous live coverage of Thursday night’s hearing on its primary cable channel, opting instead to allow its primetime opinion anchors to cover the hearings “as news warrants.”

Fox has said it will air live coverage of the hearing on Fox Business Network and its other digital platforms.