Serial adulterer Newt Gingrich has again tossed aside his supposedly fervent belief in personal responsibility to both defend Melania Trump’s plagiarism and come up with an evidence-free conspiracy theory that blamed the liberal media. Sean Hannity helped the cause with numerous falsehoods and distortions. 

It was all part of Fox’s one-sided, two-man Trump slobberfest that was supposed to be part of Fox’s RNC convention analysis last night.

Yesterday, The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple noted that Sean Hannity was so busy promoting Donald Trump’s message on the first night of the campaign, that the big news of the night, Melania Trump’s plagiarized speech, never came up. That, Wemple concluded, was why Hannity should not be anchoring convention coverage.

But Hannity’s kind of propaganda is exactly why Fox has him anchoring the coverage. In fact, one could make the argument that last night, when Hannity did get around to covering the plagiarism, what he said was worse than what he didn’t.

Hannity recapped the first night, from his perspective:

HANNITY: Everything went smoothly. No big story. You’ve got everybody that thinks they’re Matt Drudge here and they’re walkin’ around with their cameras. [...] No negative story out of last night so they try to lift two lines of Melania – who I thought gave a really incredible speech.

In fact, it wasn’t “two lines” that Melania lifted but a paragraph and a half.

Hannity next “defended” Melania by deflecting to Joe Biden who was caught plagiarizing during the 1988 presidential race.

HANNITY: English is her fifth language, not first, …her fifth. A success story in and of herself. And here’s Joe Biden, who lifted an entire speech of Neil Kinnock back in 1988.

Yes, nearly 30 years ago and not, as far as we know, since. But what Hannity also forgot to mention is that the plagiarism forced Biden to drop out of the 1988 presidential race. In other words, he faced just the kind of serious consequences Hannity was suggesting Melania should not.

Hannity went on to complain that Barack Obama “lifted Deval Patrick’s speech.” Hannity “forgot” to note that Obama had permission, which Melania Trump didn’t, and that Obama used Patrick’s words on the stump, not in a convention speech. Hannity added that Elizabeth Warren and Obama had also lifted their “you didn’t build that” remarks. But as Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty (via The Charlotte Observer) pointed out, there’s a long and proud tradition in this country of sharing political rhetoric which is quite different from appropriating language for a personal story, which is what Melania Trump did.

Of course, Gingrich gave Hannity a pass on every one of these distortions. “Melania gave a speech that was so remarkable," Gingrich continued. “You get Melania this week, you get Bill Clinton next week. Which spouse do you want? I just think it sets a standard for Bill that’s hopeless.” He and Hannity shared a malicious laugh.

I hate to break it to them, but Bill Clinton is considerably more popular than Melania Trump.

Nevertheless, the guy who ducked personal responsibility for cheating on two wives and serving them with divorce papers while they were seriously ill – but thinks children on welfare should be cut off if their mothers don’t exhibit enough “personal responsibility,” gave Melania a pass via a cockamamie, evidence-free accusation that it’s the media’s fault:

GINGRICH: So the elite media sits back for 30 seconds and they're terrified, and they think, "Oh, my God, she could become become like Jackie Kennedy. She could become one of those amazing people who brings us together that we’re proud of.

[...]

So they sat back and they go, “Oh, my God, we’ve got to do something ‘cause this is a bases-loaded homerun. Can we somehow do two things: weaken it and, second, hit her hard enough that she decides to pull back from politics?

Predictiably, Hannity never challenged a word.

Watch the “fair and balanced” discussion below, from the July 19 Hannity.