Sean Hannity couldn’t get enough of birther “questions” about President Obama’s place of birth. But that “concern” has completely disappeared now that Canadian-born Ted Cruz has declared his presidential candidacy.

Hannity, you may recall, was one of Fox’s most faithful promoters of Donald Trump’s bogus birtherism, though he pretended otherwise. However, the “issue” behind Obama’s birth certificate was a dog-whistling suspicion that he was not born in the U.S.A. There was never a dispute as to whether Obama’s mother was American born. And, in fact, there was no legitimate question as to whether Obama was, either.

But with Cruz, Hannity’s concerns vanished.

During his lapdog interview with Cruz last night, Hannity said, “There have been issues. You were born in Calgary, in Canada. Is there a birth certificate issue?” Hannity laughed apologetically, as if he were embarrassed to even mention such a ridiculous thing. “I don’t mean to - I did look at social media today and it did come up a number of times,” he said sheepishly. “I want to give you a chance to address it.”

CRUZ:  Look, there’s political chatter on it. The facts are clear. I was born in Calgary. My parents – as a legal matter, my mother is an American citizen by birth. And it’s been federal law for over two centuries that the child of an American citizen born abroad is a citizen by birth, a natural-born citizen, which is what the Constitution requires to run and several prior candidates have had this issue: John McCain was born in Panama; George Romney, Mitt’s Dad, was born in Mexico, when his parents were Mormon missionaries down there and actually, Barry Goldwater – a lot of people don’t know this – was born in Arizona, before Arizona was a state. And so as a legal matter, the issue is quite straightforward, that if you or I travel abroad and we have a child that’s born abroad, and we’re American citizens, that child is a natural-born citizen.”

However, a PolitiFact article about McCain’s presidential eligibility suggests the issue is not so straightforward as Cruz (and Hannity) would have you believe. McCain was born in a military hospital in a U.S. territory, while his father was serving in the military there, to two U.S. citizens.

PolitiFact also notes:

Most legal scholars agree the wording would clearly prohibit California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was born a citizen of Austria and became a naturalized citizen of the Unites States as an adult, from seeking the presidency. But it is less clear how the wording would effect, say, someone born outside the country to one American parent, or any number of other potential scenarios. (my emphasis)

Hannity did not challenge a word of Cruz’ contention, even though by that standard, there should never have been a question about Obama’s birth. But if there’s one thing about Cruz’ eligibility we can be certain of, it’s that Hannity never will challenge it.

Watch the hypocrisy below, from last night’s Hannity.