Now that Sean Hannity has done an about-face on the coronavirus pandemic, he is claiming he always took the COVID-19 outbreak seriously and never called it a hoax. Unfortunately for him, there’s video proof otherwise.
Vox’s Aaron Rupar tweeted out the video below of the two Hannitys:
First, we have Hannity #1 in a phone interview with Rep. Doug Collins on March 9: "I think we’ve got to be very real with the American people. I don’t like how we are scaring people. Unnecessarily. And that is that unless you have an immune system that’s compromised and you are older and you have other underlying health issues, you are not going to die, 99%, from this virus, correct?”
Collins (Trump-GA) is not a physician but he validated Hannity’s cavalier attitude. “That’s correct, Sean,” he said.
HANNITY #1: Alright, so that’s the point. I mean, this scaring the living hell out of people -- I see it, again, as like, oh, let's bludgeon Trump with this new hoax.
Hannity #2 turned up around the same time as Bedtime BFF Donald Trump’s change of heart about the coronavirus. The Washington Post laid out perfectly how Hannity and his Trumper colleagues swiveled from “no biggie” to “serious problem” just as Trump did. But instead of the teensiest ounce of self-responsibility, Hannity, like Trump (in the second video below), wants you to think he always took the public health crisis seriously.
HANNITY #2, March 18: By the way, this program has always taken the coronavirus seriously. And we've never called the virus a hoax.
Then Hannity took another dishonest stance: accusing his political foes of politicizing as a “cover” for doing exactly that, himself. “We called what they’re doing, trying to bludgeon the president out, their politicizing of this virus – well, predictable, despicable, repulsive, all of the above.”
You can watch Hannity prove himself a liar below, via Vox’s Aaron Rupar. Underneath, you can see how closely he mimics Trump’s coronavirus lies, via The Guardian.
HANNITY, March 9: "This scaring the living hell out of people -- I see it, again, as like, let's bludgeon Trump with this new hoax."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 19, 2020
HANNITY, March 18: "By the way, this program has always taken the coronavirus seriously. We've never called the virus a hoax." pic.twitter.com/yLKpojA7BI
You need to go back to school—speciffically ENGLISH & learn a few things about communication & CONTEXT, & understand that when people say things like “it’s as if” or “it’s as though,” & “it’s like,” it isn’t the same thing as saying point blank, “the Coronavirus is a hoax!”