Even a moment of graciousness was too much for Sean Hannity yesterday as he took a victory lap over the announced retirement of Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), mostly ignored Flake’s scorching criticism of Trump on the Senate floor and pretended it was all a selfless act on behalf of Americans.
Yesterday, Flake announced his retirement with a searing indictment of Donald Trump. It’s worth noting that Flake’s words were ultimately empty in that they offered nothing to hope for in the way of more stringent oversight. Nonetheless, there was some significance, in my opinion, in a Republican senator calling the head of his party “dangerous to a democracy,” projecting “a corruption of the spirit, and weakness” and "calling fake things true and true things fake.”
But to Hannity, the big significance was the removal of an obstacle to his beloved Donald Trump’s takeover of the Republican party. Ditto for retiring Sen. Bob Corker who also lashed out at Trump yesterday.
That authoritarianism is sickening enough. But Hannity’s claim to be acting on behalf of “You, the American people” was a blatant lie, used only to fool people into thinking that his authoritarianism is inspired only by altruism.
In Hannity’s mean-spirited and totally classless monologue last night, he lashed out at other senators who have refused to bow down at Trump's feet the way Hannity thinks they should:
HANNITY: Also tonight, a very important report. And that is pathetic, weak, gutless, spineless never-Trumper establishment Republicans forces all lashing out against the president today. Now, Senators Bob Corker, we have little snowflake whiny Jeff Flake and John McCain all bashing the president instead of doing what? Focusing on passing tax reform for the forgotten men and women in poverty, on food stamps, and out of work in those country.
[…]
HANNITY: Here is a simple truth: All three of these guys they are inept, they’re ineffective, they have completely failed to deliver on the promises that they made to their constituents and you the American people, for years. These guys have accomplished nothing. And others like Ben Sasse, too.
And you know what? All they are doing here is standing in the way of enacting an agenda to help move the country forward, what the people voted for last November. And they are trying to be martyrs in the process. You want to be martyrs? You guys go right ahead.
Here is my answer to all of you tonight: Good riddance, happy trails, don’t let the door hit you on the way out of town.
[…]
So, I have a suggestion for all you never-Trumper senators that are headed for the exits, people like Corker and Flake, you know what, guess what? You guys, you know, take your other colleagues with you. Mitch McConnell, good-bye. Ben Sasse, good-bye. John Cornyn, goodbye. Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins. Either get the job done that you promised the American people, advance the president’s agenda. What other conservative values that the president is advocating for that you are unwilling to support? Many of you can retire and we will all be happier.
[…]
Now, Senate Republicans are no longer serving the American people. So you know what, Senator Flake? Bye. You know what Senator Corker? See you later. It is time for accountability. It’s time to drain the swamp. If Republicans don’t back this agenda, a tax reform, repealing and replacing, they need to get out of the way or resign or retire or do something.
[…]
So, what have you never-Trumpers done in this period of time? Have you helped the millions of forgotten men and women of this country that are suffering?
Well, the answers are simple. You’ve done nothing other than help the Democrats obstruct the president at every single turn. And you know what? Enough is enough.
Sure, it’s possible Hannity truly believes that Trump’s tax cuts are not just a giveaway to the wealthiest Americans (like Hannity) and that millions of Americans would not suffer from having their Obamacare sabotaged and that we’ll all be safer if there's World War III. But Hannity surely knows that most Americans do not agree. No matter what Hannity says, he can’t change the fact that Trump was trounced in the popular vote last November, he remains the least popular president in modern history, Americans oppose the repeal and replacement of Obamacare, and his war mongering. They don't like his tax cuts much either.
Furthermore, as Heather at Crooks and Liars pointed out, “Someone forgot to remind Sean Hannity that Trump is still going to need these Republicans before any of them leave office if he wants to get that big fat tax cut passed that will enrich Hannity, his BFF Trump, and all of those wealthy donors who are getting impatient with the fact that Republicans have shown once again that they’re really, really, bad at governing once they get in power.”
Maybe Hannity is hoping that Trump and his pals will find a way to just bypass or get rid of Congress altogether.
Watch Hannity pretend he cares about American democracy below, from the October 24, 2017 Hannity, via Crooks and Liars.
Sean Hannity Goes On A Rampage Attacking Never-Trumpers In The Senate
Sean Hannity did his best to aid and abet Steve Bannon's efforts to drive the Republican party straight off a cliff by attacking the Senators who have dared to speak out against dear leader Trump.
NOTE TO HANNITY
We recently saw a photo of former Pres. Obama still looking trim and fit. You mocked him on your pathetic show for using light weights while exercising. Based on your increasing weight gain maybe you should take up the light weights. You are getting bigger than a cruise ship.
I hope the next Senator who takes a stand will actually call for opposition to Trump and Bannon taking over their party (or better yet start a moderate party) instead of just packing it in and walking way from this mess.
But in the end, history tends to view that behavior in a much less friendly light than I think Hannity has ever considered possible.
Hannity doesn’t care a whit about democracy. He cares about winning and shoving the loser’s nose in it. He cares about his hatred for Dems and anyone who doesn’t hold the same prejudices he does. He’s been consistent about his hatred ever since he began to espouse it on radio at the beginning of his career when he was just starting to emulate Limbaugh.
Hannity’s intentions regarding Congress is to somehow have a wall of 60+ pro-Trump Senators and 250+ pro-Trump congressmen so that Pence can ram through every hateful thought these guys have in their heads. Yes, they want to redo the tax code – not to help the middle class, although I do think they believe it will indirectly help them via the old “trickle down” nonsense. No, the tax code change they want is to gut the taxes on the super-rich and get the Blue states and middle class investors to pay for it. It’s a win-win for them – they get to reward their donors (and themselves), they get to practice tough love with their base (“Pull yourselves up by your own bootstraps!”) and they get to give a huge middle finger to those of us who live in the Blue states. Yes, they want to get rid of the ACA, and every single other thing ever done by President Obama. That’s not to provide health coverage – it’s to relieve them of being required to contribute into a public system, and simultaneously to punish everyone in the country who believed President Obama’s statement of “Yes We Can”. In bullying parlance, this is known as “teaching the weaklings a lesson”. Another win-win. Yes, they want to square off with North Korea – all bullies love this moment, thinking in their bravado that this will be a great opportunity to show how strong they are. To them, this either results in North Korea backing down (and I do think that Hannity believes this will happen, even if reality says otherwise) or in a massive shooting war that the Right Wing would try to use to play the 9/11 card and say “We’ve all got to come together and support the President in a time of war!” Again, a win-win.
The actual realities of what is happening indicate to me that the GOP is in a profoundly dysfunctional place right now, in spite of actually having the ability to do tremendous damage to the country. They just can’t get out of their own way. They have two Right Wings in their party, one of which is the Hard Right, the group we would have called extreme during the Reagan years, who essentially want to strip government down to the nubs and cancel any programs that require them to pay any taxes into the common good. The other of which is the even Harder Right Wing, which not only wants the first bunch of things, but also wants to scream their hatred at the rest of the country while they hurt them. (The more moderate GOP members have tended to be driven out by the other groups, and the few moderates who remain are constantly stuck being forced to vote for more extreme positions than they would like out of a real fear of being primaried.) So every time the Pence White House brings some hateful thing to the Congress, like scrapping the ACA or destroying the tax code, there’s always a huge tug of war between the two Hard Right Wings, where neither side wants to back down to the other. (Wouldn’t be manly, would it?) And occasionally, you’ll have a more moderate voice get in there before it can be shouted down, as we saw with the failure of Pence to kill the ACA via Congress. (Of course, Pence and Trump then moved to kill the ACA by Executive Order, so the result will be the same – but the key difference is that they can’t say that it was done by Congress, as they had hoped for propaganda purposes.)
What Hannity is trying to do here (as he apes Rush Limbaugh, who’s saying the same thing) is likely to have the opposite effect he’s hoping to see. Hannity thinks that by driving out anyone who isn’t a fire-breathing extreme Hard Right Wing attack dog, he’ll get a Congress in lockstep that would viciously stamp out everything in government he hates. If he were to get what he wants, we’d see a true nightmare scenario, where not only would all recent Obama Administration programs be trashed, but we’d also see these guys move into Social Security, Medicare and anything else they can destroy, while stacking the judiciary for the next 50 years with their ilk. But what we’ve been seeing around the country is that the majority of the country isn’t exactly taking all this lying down – and there’s a real chance that by going to war with themselves, the GOP will open themselves up to some truly unexpected losses in the Senate next year. Remember, all the Dems need is 3 more seats there – if they can get those, that stops Hannity’s whole program and sets up the 2020 he doesn’t want to see. With Corker and Flake stepping down (and these were two reliable Hard Right votes) and being replaced by the GOP with even Harder Right voices, the Dems have an opening to run moderate candidates in those races and take them.
Of course, one could also argue that what Limbaugh has slyly been setting up isn’t a Right Wing victory but instead a loss – one that would allow Fox News and AM radio to stay in the position that they are accustomed to holding – that of the angry opposition. This has been a lucrative business model for them for the past 30 years, and I can’t help but wonder if deep down, Limbaugh is trying to keep it going. I don’t think Hannity has the streetwise cunning that Limbaugh does to pull a maneuver like this – but you never know.