Sean Hannity was oh, so sanctimoniously concerned about Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin being confronted by liberal activists but I’m old enough to remember when he sent Fox toadies to stalk Joe Biden at his house during last year’s election.
Last night, Hannity was the picture of poutrage (or, as I like to call it, “Hanctimony”) over activists confronting Sinema in a bathroom and Manchin via kayak while he was in his houseboat:
HANNITY: Senator Sinema, one of only two Democrats refusing to rubber stamp Biden's insane -- and it is insane. We can't afford it. These policies will fail. These are false promises. You will give up your freedom. It will result in more poverty like every socialist utopia you know in the past has done.
And, by the way, $3.5 trillion, their eco-socialist amnesty for all spending bill. And tonight, she's calling out Democratic leadership for their, quote, inexcusable, deeply disappointing actions and Senator Sinema's colleague, Joe Manchin, also refusing to sign off on this monstrosity. And the liberal Democrat from West Virginia will only commit to a mere $1.5 trillion bill.
Okay, some level of fiscal responsibility I guess. I don't think we should be spending a penny, especially after all the money we had to spend as it relates to the worst pandemic since 1917 and `18.
Even Manchin is confronted by activists on his houseboat on the Potomac.
But you know Hannity only cares about Sinema and Manchin as a vehicle to attack Biden, right? Sure enough, Hannity used the incidents to focus on a clip of Biden saying, “I don't think they're appropriate tactics but it happens to everybody from -- the only people it doesn't happen to are people who have Secret Service standing around them. So, it's part of the process.”
Hannity also used the moment to pretend to care about a woman’s right to privacy!
HANNITY: Just part of the process. You won't stick up for your fellow senators? I guess then it's all part of the process, you getting "F Joe Biden"-ed all over every stadium around the country, getting followed into a bathroom stall videotape while going to the bathroom, is that part of the process you support, Joe? Whatever happened to standing up for a woman's right to privacy? What about showing up at someone's house and shouting them down where they live? That's part of the process, Joe?
And what if someone came to your basement during your midday nap, Joe?
It's not appropriate. It's wrong. It's unethical, and you should have stuck up for both Manchin and Sinema. Mob rule is never part of the process, Joe. But that's right, you wouldn't even talk about the 524 riots in the summer of 2020. Democrats only want to talk about January 6th. They don't want to talk about the riots that killed dozens of Americans, injured thousands of cops pelted with bricks and rocks and bottles and Molotov cocktails and people -- dozens of people killed, thousands of cops injured?
Hannity regularly accuses Biden of senility: “It's almost as if Joe Biden isn't in charge, isn't it? In other words, his staff knows he's a cognitive mess,” Hannity said in this segment. But it seems that Hannity is suffering from a terrible bout of amnesia here and has forgotten all about having sent Fox News operatives to stalk Biden at his house last October.
From my post about the October 20, 2020 Hannity show:
HANNITY: Joe Biden, you have a lot of questions to answer and it’s time for you to answer them. What did you know, when did you know it. Did you take a cut of your son’s seedy international pay-for-play schemes?
[…]
HANNITY: I know it’s 9 PM Eastern, Joe, but if you’re still awake, we have a camera right outside of your house, right there, right now! You can walk outside your house, leave your basement bunker. Feel free to step out, answer any of these pressing questions and we will be more than happy to hear you out.
The next night, Hannity sent Fox's news analyst Lawrence Jones, dishonestly identified as “Hannity 2020 election correspondent, investigative reporter.” Jones told Hannity, “We'll be out here all night and the vice president can come up to the podium at any moment.” By total coincidence, I’m sure, a lot of Fox News fans showed up too. “[T]here's been a lot of cars driving by, and some of them are waving, saying, see you on Hannity. We love you, love what you do,” Jones told Hannity. “I think just a lot of voters that just want to know where the former vice president is.”
You can watch Hannity’s selective respect for politicians’ privacy below, from the October 4, 2021 Hannity. Underneath, are segments from the October 20, 2020 and October 2021 Hannity shows, proving that scruples here are about as genuine as those about raising the debt ceiling.
Hannity’s condemnation of mob rule is pretty selective, too. Hannity didn’t condone the January 6th insurrection but he did defend the mob:
HANNITY: I want to explain in detail if I can what today is about and why people are feeling the way they're feeling, if to the extent that I think I can. And this is not something that has happened here in a vacuum. And I would argue, and I have been arguing, that this is something that has been building and building for a long period of time.
That commentary, from the January 6, 2021 The Sean Hannity Show is below, too, via Media Matters.
Bottom line: two senators out of 50 are saying “I have the power to f*** the majority of the country and I’m enjoying it”. Here’s hoping their power collapses at the next elections.
“… especially after all the money we had to spend as it relates to the worst pandemic since 1917 and `18.”