There’s a pattern that keeps repeating over the last five years. Republicans—usually Donald Trump—do something that is objectively awful: Insult a Gold Star family. Call veterans “losers.” Explain how being a star entitles you to commit sexual assault. In the wake of these moments, both Republicans in Congress and the right-wing media react with … silence.

They wait, looking to the American public for some sign of outrage. They dip a thermometer into social media, checking to see that their base is still with them. Then, reassured that people are willing to shrug off that “locker room talk,” they charge right back in, taking the most recent outrage as the new standard of behavior. Turning the dial constantly, not just on what it takes to be shocking, but on what Republicans expect to show that you’re still a member of the team.  

This week’s contribution to the repetition of this seemingly endless déjà vu came in reaction to the texts that were sent from Republicans in Congress and pundits at Fox News to former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. In the midst of the Jan. 6 assault, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Brian Kilmeade were all desperately texting Meadows, begging him to get Trump to stop the violence. 

For 24 hours after that revelation, Fox News engaged in another round of radio silence, returning to the big story of just how culpable President Joe Biden is for the actions of a homeless, mentally impaired man who burned down their tree. But on Tuesday evening, Ingraham and Hannity were ready to address the issue in their time-honored way: by making fun of the select committee, other newscasters, and Rep. Liz Cheney.

Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson simply reaffirmed his support for violence.

The statements from the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 on Tuesday included Hannity asking Meadows, “Can [Trump] make a statement? Ask people to leave the Capitol.” Ingraham was even more frantic. “Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home,” texted Ingraham. “This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy.”

As Talking Points Memo reports, even after going radio silent, neither Ingraham nor Hannity seemed to be interested in the actual contents of the texts they sent Meadows. Neither discussed what they had sent, or why they were more concerned about the effect of the insurgency on Trump than on the republic.

Instead, they took the low road—also known as the Fox Expressway—straight into making fun of “the diminutive media elves” and declaring that the members of the committee are “aggressively boring.”

Boring, apparently, because the members of the House select committee are actually still concerned about a multipronged effort to reverse the legitimate outcome of a presidential election using a plan that originated in the White House and was briefed to both Republican officials and members of Congress in advance of the violent assault. Saving democracy. How boring.

Still, Fox viewers only had to wait an hour to get the even more authoritative authoritarian take on the day. That’s where Roger Dascombe-in-training Tucker Carlson skipped right over anything that looked like remorse and went straight to how the Jan. 6 assault was a good thing.

As Media Matters for America notes, Carlson has shifted from previous propaganda in which he pushed a conspiracy theory that the whole event was a “false flag” staged by the “deep state” to proudly owning the day.

Back on Jan. 6, Donald Trump took a phone call from GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who was also begging Trump to end the assault. “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,” replied Trump.

What’s surprising is that it’s taken this long for Republicans to take this as their official position.