Is there anything more hypocritical than Sean Hannity smearing Hillary Clinton as being too elitist – and then accusing her of engaging in class warfare?
Hannity’s attacks on Clinton’s lifestyle just happen to coincide with the Republican plan to turn Hillary into Mitt Romney:
Forget about the Arkansas days, the small-bore scandals, her health care plan and most everything else from the 1990s. A consensus is forming within the Republican Party that the plan of attack against Hillary Clinton should be of a more recent vintage, rooted in her accumulation of wealth and designed to frame her as removed from the concerns of average Americans.
… The out-of-touch plutocrat template is a familiar one: Democrats used it to devastating effect against Republican Mitt Romney in 2012. While Hillary Clinton’s residences in New York and Washington may not have car elevators, there’s still a lengthy trail of paid speeches, tone-deaf statements about the family finances and questions about Clinton family foundation fundraising practices that will serve as cornerstones of the anti-Clinton messaging effort.
… “The most potent message against Clinton is that she doesn’t live an average life, she’s out of touch and doesn’t play by the same set of rules,” said the RNC’s research director, Raj Shah. “[T]hat resonates more deeply than some of the policy hits, the ethical hits.”
From the GOP to Sean Hannity’s lips. Last night, Hannity repeatedly accused Clinton of being a one percenter out of touch with most Americans. In one segment, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus brought up the issue:
PRIEBUS: This whole Scooby Doo van tour was supposed to be about the people, right? And what does she do? She puts on sunglasses. This is Iowa, it’s not Hollywood. They’re all walking into Chipotle with sunglasses on, trying to hide from the public.
It seems to me if you’re really trying to hide from the public, you don’t go into Chipotle at all, with or without sunglasses. As for sunglasses, anyone with sensitive eyes or who lives in a bright location away from the east coast knows that sunglasses can be a must.
The sunglasses thing came up again.
HANNITY: What about her out of touch? I mean, the Anna Wintour glasses. She goes in there – if I’m running for president, I want to walk around, I want to say hi, I’m Sean Hannity, I’m running for president, I want your vote. This is where I stand on the issues, thank you so much. I’m glad you’re here. …Whatever happened to that?
PRIEBUS: All of that. …I mean, if you want to be successful, especially in Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina, you gotta take the sunglasses off and actually go and talk to people and actually care about what people think.
In another segment, with Carly Fiorina, the same issue also just happened to arise. Only this time, Hannity amplified:
FIORINA: I do not resent Mrs. Clinton’s wealth in the slightest. What I resent, is every policy she has ever favored, every policy that has been in place in the Obama administration, has made it tougher for the middle class.
HANNITY: She travels around in private jets, gets $200,000 a speech, is a multi, multi-millionaire, has multimillion dollar homes in a number of cities. She lives the lap of luxury and then she’s attacking the rich and playing class warfare.
Now that’s rich, pardon the pun. Because Hannity is really not in any position to be pointing fingers at anyone else about private jets, speaking fees, etc. Hannity’s own speaking fees of at least $100,000 include private jet travel. With an estimated net worth of $60 million, he doesn’t exactly slum it with his multimillion dollar Long Island estate or his Naples, Florida luxury penthouse.
So who’s really playing class warfare, Sean?
Watch it below, from last night’s Hannity.
Interesting that O’Reilly, Kelly and Hannity are just so concerned about how Clinton is running her campaign. Clearly, they’re very interested in helping her run a successful campaign, right? That wouldn’t be open hatred dripping from Hannity, Kelly and Mark Thiessen, would it? That wouldn’t be open condescension from Bill O’Reilly, would it?
And I say this not as a fan of Hillary Clinton. But it’s telling how openly desperate the GOP is becoming – maybe it would be a better idea for them to see if they can pull the angry factions of their own party together before running out and telling another party how to operate a presidential campaign? Just a thought.
I saw the Rethug candidates on TV the other day beating up on Hillary. Jeb Bush referred to the “Clinton-Obama” foreign policy. I’m sure they’ll get the “base’s” votes, but I don’t know how many others they’ll get.
Also, I find it highly amusing that the party of rich people is trying to play class warfare.
“When Hannocchio is out in public he wears dark sunglasses, and a baseball hat to cover his gray hair.”
And the EMPTY SPACE between his ears!
;^)