Unfortunately for Sean Hannity, less than a minute after he claimed to “know from my sources” that Hope Hicks was “very vigilant” about wearing a face mask, Fox’s own B-roll showed her sitting in a crowd without one.
After Donald and Melania Trump and adviser Hope Hicks were revealed to have coronavirus last night, Hannity phoned into Fox News, claimed we're on "the back end" of the pandemic and said this:
HANNITY: I know from my sources in the White House Hope was actually very vigilant about wearing a mask, took it very seriously.
That was at about :26 in the video below.
But at about :43, we got a very different picture, as the screen grab at the top of the post shows. And while it’s not clear when that photo was taken, we do know that Hicks has repeatedly appeared in public without a mask recently, as BoingBoing noted in a post that included these tweets:
Here is Hicks at walking side-by-side with Jared Kushner from Marine One to Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday afternoon, as part of Donald Trump's entourage on the way to Minnesota for a fundraiser in a private home in Shorewood and an airport rally in Duluth. pic.twitter.com/zcaVeXWfUe
— Stephen Schwartz (@AtomicAnalyst) October 2, 2020
The Daily Beast pointed out Hannity's hypocrisy at the end of the call:
Hannity, meanwhile, wrapped up his call by praising the president for implementing a partial travel ban on China in late-January to stem the spread of the virus, all while blasting former Vice President Joe Biden for supposedly criticizing that decision. (Besides the 207,000 American deaths, the United States now has over 7 million confirmed cases.)
“Everything is going to be viewed through the prism of politics,” he concluded. “I would argue the health of everybody comes first. The president is strong, he is healthy, he is fit, he takes no medications that have bee made public that I’m aware of and I don’t think he takes any. I think that he’s probably a good candidate with therapeutics to make a quick speedy recovery and we pray for that.”
I’m not gloating about anyone’s ill health but I am intent on highlighting the dangerous behavior that got Team Trump where they are (and the country is) today.
You can watch Fox contradict Hannity below, from Fox’s coverage of the Trumps’ COVID-19 positivity. You may also notice how the B-roll repeatedly shows the same footage of Trump wearing a mask, thus falsely suggesting he has modeled safe behavior, too.
That said, I’m wondering whether or not God may actually be stepping in to stop the worst damage …
That’s me trying to “reason” like a true GOP, Bible-thumping evangelical christian (small “c” intended).
- If you haven’t watched the Netflix doco, please do.