Unfortunately for Sean Hannity, the New York Times bombshell about Donald Trump’s attempt to fire Robert Mueller dropped less than an hour before the Hannity show aired and threatened to overshadow his latest episode of “Let’s Destroy The FBI Because They Care That My Beloved Trump May Have Played A Role In Russia’s Interference In Our Democracy.”
While CNN and MSNBC covered the breaking news, Fox seemed to be doing its best to avoid it. First, during his opening monologue, Hannity claimed that the Times was “trying to distract you.” From what? From the falling apart of Fox’s latest FBI conspiracy theory?
HANNITY: Tonight, for example, they’re trying to change the story. At this hour, The New York Times is trying to distract you. They have a story Trump wanted Mueller fired sometime last June and our sources - and I’ve checked in with many of them - they’re not confirming that tonight. And the president’s attorney dismissed the story and says, “No, no comment. We’re not going there.” How many times has the New York Times gotten it wrong?
About halfway through his show, Hannity and fellow Trump lickspittle Gregg Jarrett paused from Operation Destroy FBI And Mueller to again try to discredit the Times’ report. But this time, Hannity hedged his bets and began arguing that Trump’s behavior was “absolutely legitimate, just like it’s legitimate to ask who did you vote for.”
HANNITY: So of course the news media sheep, anonymous sources. … Listen, I’m sure the president did look at conflicts of interest, as he should. Absolutely legitimate, just like it’s legitimate to say who did you vote for. And the media tries to make the biggest deal over that. But remember last June, anonymous sources, wasn’t it Maggie Haberman and other New York Times reporters telling us the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson would be long gone by now and haven’t we had a number of these Washington Post, New York Times stories end up being debunked with their phony anonymous sourcing?
GREGG JARRETT: Yeah, these are not reliable reporters. And by the way, there/ve been innumerable stories over the last several months that Trump wanted to fire Mueller and I would, too, if I were president. Mueller had not one, but two conflicts of interest. Rod Rosenstein did. The president probably felt as though, “I’d like to get rid of these guys and get other people who could be fair, objective and neutral in this case.” (Transcript via Media Matters)
Then Jarrett pivoted right back to Fox’s/GOP’s FBI text message obsession.
JARRETT: But I must say, Sean, these - with every new text message that is revealed, the evidence becomes incontrovertible that a group, a rogue group of high-ranking officials at the FBI decided on their own that they were going to clear Hillary Clinton for political reasons… and simultaneously, the backup plan, let’s destroy Donald Trump’s candidacy and if he wins, destroy his presidency with a false investigation of crimes he never committed and they knew it.
Finally, at the end of the show, Hannity had to admit that the report was true. But he promised to spin it tomorrow:
HANNITY: So, we have sources tonight just confirming to Ed Henry that, yeah, maybe Donald Trump wanted to fire the special counsel for conflict. Does he not have the right to raise those questions? You know, we’ll deal with this tomorrow night. (Transcript via Media Matters)
Watch Hannity evolve from “The New York Times is trying to distract you” to “news media sheep, anonymous sources” but “absolutely legitimate” to “we have sources tonight just confirming” that, “yeah, maybe Donald Trump wanted to fire the special counsel for conflict,” below via NewsHound Richard and Media Matters.
FOX News Trump Stooge Sean Hannity does only :23 seconds on the NY Times story that Trump ordered #Mueller fired in June, They don't even bother to put the story on the lower third graphic. FOX News = State Run Media. pic.twitter.com/wAqBB8PBOt
— Richard W. (@IceManNYR) January 26, 2018
The disgruntled Fox “News” employees are laughing at Hannie Pie the Vapor Man. Everyone knows he’s not the brightest lamp in the room.
NOTE TO HANNITY
You got the confirmation of Trumpy’s attempt to fire Mueller near the end of your show. Was it done on purpose to make you look like a fool? Sleep on that with your booze in your hand, and your smokes in your mouth.
“You know, we’ll deal with this tomorrow night” . . . after we’ve gotten our spin/talking points ready.
It’s not shown on the last video, but immediately afterward, Hannity cut to footage of a car chase in Arizona — no word on whether it was Jeannine Pirro who was driving . . .
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