After Donald Trump spent the day threatening and fuming at the great American institution of a free press, Sean Hannity delightedly validated the attacks during an hour-long smooch-arama in the guise of an interview.
Hannity acted more like a fawning MC than an interviewer with Trump. It seemed as though every “question” was designed to promote a Trump talking point, rather than elicit any information, all against a backdrop of a cheering or booing crowd depending on whether the subject was about a Trump ally or opponent.
The crowd was a sea of white faces:
Anybody want to bet there wereTrump operatives or producers egging them on?
In Part One of the interview, below, Hannity opened by crowing about the economy, giving all the credit to Trump and slobbering with him over his tax cut proposals and his cutting regulations. As Media Matters noted, Trump was allowed to “push obvious lies and make completely incoherent comments without pause.”
Sadly, Hannity seems to think that only an enemy would fact check his beloved Dear Leader. So when Trump responded to Hannity’s question about how he’ll get his economic plan through the Senate by attacking the media, Hannity was there to help amplify the attack.
HANNITY: How do you get this through the Senate which has not had a good record in the last 10 months?
TRUMP: First of all, this will be an even bigger tax cut than the great Reagan cuts. This will be even more dramatic and I think it will create even more incentive. But let’s talk media is bad. They’re really dishonest people. These are very, very dishonest people - in many cases, in many cases and not all. Look, I know some reporters, I know some journalists that are phenomenal people and very straight, very honest. But there’s such dishonesty.
I mean, you know, it’s interesting. If I was just watching television, you don’t know whether or not - because you know, you’re just watching a report. But when you’re the one being written about, you know if it’s good or bad - and it’s always, they try and make it negative. So the media has turned - I call it fake media. It is fake. It’s so much fake news. And you have to understand.
Hannity looked on with admiration as Trump spoke.
Then, Hannity interrupted Trump to egg on the audience: “Do you agree with that? Fake news?”
Although Hannity likes to sport a large flag pin, as if it's some kind of proof of his patriotism, he seems spend to that portion of his airtime not devoted to worshipping Trump in seething against the majority of Americans who disagree. For example: Hannity “covered” the Harvey Weinstein scandal by attacking Democrats; he joined in the demand for Sen. Bob Corker’s resignation because he made what Hannity considered a “totally unacceptable” statement questioning Trump’s fitness for office; Hannity has deliberately tried to sabotage the investigation into Russia’s interference in our 2016 election in order to “pre-acquit” Trump; and during his rant making Trump the real victim of the Charlottesville white supremacist violence, Hannity argued that there’s a black equivalent for every white supremacist.
Hannity also spent a chunk of his vacation last summer raging on Twitter because others in the media don’t adore Trump as much as he does. At one point, he even threatened MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski in an apparent effort to blackmail them into more favorable coverage.
Clearly, this is a man who hates democracy and should not be allowed to wrap himself in a flag while trying to undermine it.
Watch this latest example of Hannity’s intolerance for democracy below, from the October 11, 2017 Hannity.