Ordinarily, Sean Hannity and other Fox News conservatives salivate over the thought of going to war against Iran. They’ve been talking it up for years. But now that Donald Trump – that great expert on President Obama – has said he believes Obama will initiate a war in order to help himself win re-election, all of a sudden, they’re not so enthusiastic. On Hannity’s Great American Panel segment last night (1/5/12), guests Angela McGlowan and former Senator Alfonse D’Amato immediately agreed with Trump without even bothering to ask for any facts to support the theory. Oh, nobody seemed to mind going to war and having (other people's) blood shed. No, they squawked about such an abuse of power. But the real horror seemed to be that they thought this hypothetical ploy might work to get Obama re-elected. 

The only so-called evidence to support such an outrageous accusation against our president was Hannity’s statement at the beginning of discussion: “He (Trump) believes that close to the election that Barack Obama would, would start something and the nation would rally behind him.”

McGlowan jumped at this flimsy excuse to attack Obama. “This man would do anything. He’s Machiavellian. He’d do anything to win re-election.”

D’Amato too. But he quickly revealed what he cared about. “Absolutely. I am very fearful that he will do that and it will rally the nation because there is such a great - number one, fear and anger as it relates to Iran and what they’ve been doing, that the American people would rally around him.”

You may recall that Hannity was the guy who kept pretending not to be a birther at the same time that he relentlessly promoted Trump’s birther accusations. Hannity used the same strategy here – playing the skeptic while promoting the attack. Hannity now said, “So he (Obama) would ignore Iran which just last week threatened, it said to the United States if we don’t move our ships out of the Straits of Hormuz, they’re going to blow them out of the water, that they’re plotting assassinations on U.S. soil of foreign dignitaries. He does nothing up to that point. But if he does something in September, would that not cause reason for real cycnicism?” Later, when challenged by the Democratic guest, Hannity said disingenuously, “I asked a question.”

Like his guests, Hannity didn’t seem to think it worth discussing whether or not war might be warranted.

Steve Murphy was the only Democatic guest in the four-person discussion. He called it “shameful” that Hannity would accuse Obama of going to war for political reasons. Murphy also pointed out that it would be hard to tarnish Obama’s solid record on national security with accusations of opportunism. But, disappointingly, Murphy never went much on offense over such outrageous accusations. He never demanded proof to back up Trump’s claims, never questioned why Hannity would promote them without any proof and he never challenged why anyone was giving the discredited Trump any credence to begin with.

The funny thing is, Fox's Dick Morris openly advocated for war against Iran in 2008 in order to help John McCain win (Morris also predicted Israel would attack Iran before the inauguration if polling showed Obama would win). It happened right there under Hannity’s nose, on the Hannity & Colmes show. If I missed the condemnation from Hannity, McGlowan and D’Amato – all on the Fox News payroll – toward Morris for that, please let me know. Meanwhile, the silence has been deafening. 

You can email the show at [email protected]. You can also tweet Hannity at @SeanHannity or McGlowan at @AngelaMcGlowan