Was Sean Hannity breaking news about Rudy Giuliani's efforts to get dirt on Joe Biden in Ukraine or lying on behalf of pals? UPDATED
It’s hard to know whether Sean Hannity was throwing the State Department under the bus in service of Giuliani and/or Donald Trump in the Ukraine whistleblower scandal or revealing truth (or both) when he announced that Giuliani was asked by two State Department officials to contact Ukraine for an “official mission” to investigate Joe Biden.
Hannity is one of the last people I’d ever look to as an authoritative source given that he has already proven that he’ll lie about anything if it’s in his political self-interest. On the other hand, Hannity sounded like he really knew something when Media Matters caught him saying this on his radio show on Friday:
“All this talk about, well, Ukraine, it turns out Rudy Giuliani was actually approached by our State Department, to basically do an official mission. And two State Department officials specifically asking him to contact Ukraine over the election fraud issue and being a good citizen that he did, he did it on behalf of the country.”
Interestingly, anchor John Roberts did not ask Pompeo about this when he appeared on Fox News Sunday today. But Pompeo repeatedly slithered away from saying what he knows about what happened.
Listen to Hannity below, from the September 20, 2019 The Sean Hannity Show, via Media Matters. Note: I could only get the player to work in Chrome, not Safari or Firefox.
(Hannity image via screen grab)
CORRECTION: I originally said the State Department asked Giuliani to contact Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden's son. The so-called "electiion fraud issue" pertained to Biden, himself, supposedly interfering in the Ukraine election in service to his son. However, this accusation has no merit.
The fact the State Department sent Giuliani on an “official mission” isn’t so hard to believe. So Trump calls Pompeo. Pompeo lets the s—t roll downhill and some State Department minions contact Giuliani. Heck, this is the norm breaking Trump administration where professionalism fled from day one shrieking in horror.
By the way, Giuliani is confirming the State Department aided him though he falls short of saying it was an “official State Department mission”. Per NBC News:
“Giuliani says State Dept. aided his effort to press Ukraine on Trump opponents”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/giuliani-says-state-dept-aided-his-effort-press-ukraine-trump-n1045171
From The Decline and Fall of the American Empire