Sean Hannity took a break from his ranting about the end of the “witch hunt” to help Sarah Huckabee Sanders claim that her lie about James Comey’s firing which, under oath, she admitted to the Mueller investigation - is suddenly true again, when she isn't under oath.
Although Hannity has worked at discrediting the Mueller investigation on nearly every show, now that the Mueller report has declined any prosecutions of Trump or his family, Hannity has accepted every word.
Like his colleague, Laura Ingraham, Birther Boy Hannity thinks he and his Bedtime BFF are owed apologies.
HANNITY: And today, where are the apologies? Where are the retractions? Where are the corrections?
Yet Hannity lied moments later when he said Trump was “was cleared of obstruction.” Seconds afterward, Hannity played a clip of Barr not saying Trump had been cleared but that “the evidence developed by the special counsel is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offense.” And, even Barr’s comment was misleading given that Mueller’s actual report explicitly declined to exonerate Trump of obstruction of justice.
Then, after attacking nearly everyone else in the media as liars, Hannity brought on Huckabee Sanders. Page 72 of Volume II of the Mueller report states that Sanders had said then-FBI Director James Comey was fired because Donald Trump, the Department of Justice, bipartisan members of Congress and “most importantly the rank and file of the FBI had lost confidence” in him. When challenged by a reporter, Sanders insisted “we’ve heard from countless members of the FBI” about their lack of support for Comey. The Mueller report then states (my emphases added):
Following the press conference, Sanders spoke to the President, who told her she did a good job and did not point out any inaccuracies in her comments.481 Sanders told this Office that her reference to hearing from “countless members of the FBI” was a “slip of the tongue.”482 She also recalled that her statement in a separate press interview that rank-and-file FBI agents had lost confidence in Comey was a comment she made “in the heat of the moment that was not founded on anything.”
Now that she wasn’t under oath, Huckabee Sanders wants you to believe she was right the first time. Honest-Abe Hannity not only accepted the shifting account, he helped validate it. He painted himself as some big FBI and CIA-agent confidante and Huckabee Sanders as a Big Victim:
HANNITY: So, the media is attacking you today, because I guess in the testimony you gave, you had said your FBI -- a lot of the FBI people you know were -- well, I could tell you - let me put it this way - every FBI rank and file guy, the 99.9% I know, have all thanked me, because they're hurt -- their [reputation] -- this is the premier law enforcement agency in the world. Just like our intelligence community, same thing. The premier intelligence community in the world, they were hurt by a few at the top, and they're angry about it, and you said that -- but -- explain.
HUCKABEE SANDERS: Absolutely. Look, I acknowledge that I had a slip of the tongue when I used the word "countless," but it's not untrue.
And certainly, you just echoed exactly the sentiment and the point that I was making, is that a number of both current and former FBI agents agreed with the president. James Comey was a disgraced leaker who tried to politicize and undermine the very agency he was supposed to run.
As Think Progress noted, Huckabee Sanders continued her liar’s-rehab media tour this morning on both CBS and ABC with similar, obviously pre-prepared language.
As for Hannity, I’d love to know how many FBI and CIA “rank and file guys” have actually thanked Hannity for his attacks on the bureau and agency. And where does he he meet all these adoring agents? At his luxury condo in Naples, Florida? Hanging in his Long Island hood with Billy Joel? Maybe wherever he parks his private jet and helicopter?
Watch Hannity help spread lies and disinformation below, from the April 18, 2019 Hannity.