Sean Hannity seemed awfully agitated for someone who thought impeachment hearing witness Marie Yovanovitch had not provided any useful testimony. Could it have something to do with the fact that he has been implicated in the smear campaign against her?
Yovanovitch is the former ambassador to Ukraine who was pushed out after a smear campaign by John Solomon, then an executive vice president at The Hill, now a Fox News contributor. Solomon's smears were subsequently promoted by none other than Seth Rich-smearer Hannity. Solomon and Hannity were even name checked during the hearing when Democratic counsel Daniel Goldman displayed a Trump tweet promoting Solomon's discredited conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 election. That tweet tagged Hannity and Fox News:
Yovanovitch was such a compelling and sympathetic witness that the spectators burst into cheers and applause and gave her a standing ovation at the end of the hearing. Fox’s own Chris Wallace said you’d have to lack a pulse not to have been moved by her testimony.
Hannity, on the other hand, couldn’t have seemed pettier or more mean-spirited. Media Matters has the transcript:
HANNITY: Welcome to the witch trial led by the congenital liar. By the way, what's he so afraid of? Oh, that's right. The truth. That's what he's terrified of. And that's why we didn't hear from an actual fact witness again. She knew nothing. As Devin Nunes said, "Why was she even there?"
We just get more testimony, and more testimony, yes, another self-important very narcissist diplomat snowflake who can't take minor, tiny baby criticism, a witness to nothing. She had no reason to be there. She witnessed no wrongdoing, knew nothing about what we’re discussing, no direct evidence of any misconduct whatsoever, no contact with the president, no contact with his chief of staff, no contact with anybody that really knew the president, no knowledge of anything being alleged by the Democrats. You cannot make this up. This is how sick Washington has become.
Sorry, Seanie-Pooh, but this is exactly how bullies, of which you are a stellar example, behave when they are afraid.
And, by the way, what did you mean that she “knew nothing about what we’re discussing?”
Watch Hannity’s bullyboy bluster below, from the November 15, 2019 Hannity, via Media Matters.
I continue to be amazed at how panicked the Right Wing is becoming over these hearings. One would think they’d quiet down a bit if they wanted us to think they were just bored and disinterested.
And I have to thank Michela for the comic posting. I needed a laugh and that was a good one.
Who will Gym Jordan and Devil Nunes call as rebuttal witnesses? Ghouliani, the two indicted Ukranian mobsters, Mutt Mulvaney, Pom Pom Pompeo or lying Bill Barr?
My own idea is that the Dems should carry on with the inquiry as steadily and soberly as they have done so far but without rushing to draft articles of impeachment by end 2019. Some time before Easter, or whenever they feel that they have enough evidence, they should suspend the presentation of articles to the Senate on the grounds that doing so would be too close to the elections.
The Dems should then keep repeating that it was not the overwhelming evidence that motivates their decision but rather their genuine willingness to allow the voters to pass judgement in November. GOPers would of course howl foul play (forgetting that that has been one of their favourite talking points). And Pence would not be able to drape himself in shining armour as the one man who would protect the Dear Leader from prosecution.
The one remedy that I can see here is for EVERYONE to vote next November. If these guys can be convincingly tossed from office, they’ll lose their supposed immunity and THAT’s when you’ll see them start to turn on each other. But so long as they are within the cocoon of the Pence White House (or recently ejected from it, like Bolton), there really is too much of a fear factor for them to say anything. These guys are all typical wannabe bullies – cowards at heart and despicable by nature. And had those 2-3 million active Dem voters in the swing states bothered to show up in 2016, these guys would never have been in this position to do this damage.
Ode to Sean Hannity
by John Cleese
Aping urbanity
Oozing with vanity
Plump as a manatee
Faking humanity
Journalistic calamity
Intellectual inanity
Fox Noise insanity
You’re a profanity
Hannity
Like it or not, Mulvaney, Pompeio, Barr and Giuliani are now deeply involved in a multi-person ’Prisoner’s Dilemma’. Each of them could sing like a canary and get little or no jail time, but if all keep shtum, they could theoretically all get away scot-free. But can they trust each other? Can they depend on their own minions to maintain their gossamer-thin covers? Even more to the point, can they trust Trump? If he sees any advantage in destroying them to save himself, he’ll do it in a nano-second.
In Foxie land where dumb is king,
When Sean is on here’s what we sing:
When you spew right wing views
And your friends all hate Jews
That’s A Moron,
When you lie with such glee
With an I-Q of three
That’s A Moron,
Bells will ring ting-a-ling-a-ling, ting-a-ling-a-ling
And your friends will sal-i-vate,
Hearts will play tippy-tippy-tay, tippy-tippy-tay
Don’t peddling hate pay so great,
When the spin makes you croak
Like a nut-zoid on coke
That’s A Moron,
When you bitch and you moan like a paranoid clone
You’re insane,
When you rally your troops
With your big piles of poop
Jesus weeps,
‘Scuz-a-me, can’t you see, here in reality
That’s A Moron, That’s A Moron, That’s A Moron!
:D
I’ll slightly modify Eyes’ take on the other witnesses. Giulliani, Perry, Bolton, Pompeo, Mulvaney are all refusing to testify because they are terrified of Pence’s childish spokesman. None of them wants to be the next guy in his crosshairs, and thus in the crosshairs of his deplorable base. (BTW – even if one of them shows at some point, I’d expect them to immediately commit perjury, for the same reason.) I would prefer to see the Dems enforce their subpoenas and have a couple of those guys spend a few nights in jail.
It’s unfortunate that McConnell will be completely quashing this entire thing as soon as it gets to the Senate, but once again, it’s a part of the grand lesson of how Elections Have Consequences. Had more Dems showed up to vote in Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Texas, we would not now be having that part of the conversation.
One more thing – while everyone was looking the other way yesterday, Pence’s childish spokesman pardoned multiple guys in the US military who have been shown to have committed various war crimes. He was asked not to do this by the military brass, but he ignored them so he could throw another sop to the deplorables. He didn’t do this because he loves the military or servicemen. He did this because he loved what these guys did – and he knows his deplorable base does too. I’m frankly surprised that he hasn’t pardoned Manafort and Flynn yet, but I’m betting that will happen before he leaves office. And I’m also surprised that we haven’t seen Barr drum up charges against the Clintons – but that may be part of the Durham report these guys keep drumrolling for next year.
I count can’t the number of loyal Trump sycophants I’ve heard using this same GOP talking point: There are no direct witnesses. Of course there aren’t because the direct witnesses refuse to testify because they have nothing exonerating to say of Trump.
We do have fact witnesses, I believe, who point all the way up to Mulvaney (who is fighting desperately not to appear). We may have a fact witness(es) who overheard Trump in a phone conversation. They’re in private hearings but it’ll be interesting to see what they have to say in public.
https://www.npr.org/2019/11/15/779972367/state-department-aide-had-specific-quotes-from-trump-democratic-congressman-says