During his hour-long interview with Sean Hannity last night, Donald Trump spent nearly six minutes complaining that the media doesn’t treat him with the great adulation and love that Fox News does he can’t seem to function without.
On the same day that top Trump adviser Stephen Bannon told the media to "keep its mouth shut" and a few days after Trump Press Secretary Sean Spicer lectured the press to stop "demoralizing" poor Trump with its "negative coverage," Top Trump Adorer Hannity was all on board with the notion of trying to bully the media into loving Trump (transcript excerpts via FoxNews.com):
HANNITY: The media—a little bit of a contentious start, if you will, with them. They want to—I’ve seen now The New York Times, CNN, NBC—they’ve used the word “liar” to describe you as it relates if you’re talking about crowd size or the border...
That started Trump on more than five minutes of whining about his press coverage, with Hannity’s approval:
TRUMP: They’re very hostile. These are very hostile people. These are very angry people.
HANNITY: But they also colluded against you in the campaign.
TRUMP: Yes.
HANNITY: And my question to you is...
TRUMP: Well, they’re very dishonest people. The media is very dishonest. I’ve been saying it. I say it openly.
HANNITY: I said journalism’s dead, so we agree.
Anybody with a lick of integrity probably doubled over with laughter at Hannity complaining that “journalism is dead.” He even tried to kill it right here.
Trump went on to lie about his speech at the CIA that was slammed by former director John Brennan and others. Trump's dishonest self-aggrandizement was bad enough but the bigger picture is that we have a president more obsessed with his popularity than the truth and maybe little else. That should be cause for anyone's alarm, especially a host on a cable news network. But to “Great American” Hannity, the problem is that the media wants to report on this:
TRUMP: I went to the CIA, my first stop, because I have great respect for intelligence...
HANNITY: I saw (INAUDIBLE)
TRUMP: ... not the man who headed the CIA. Hey, I don’t have any respect for him. But Brennan—I didn’t think he was good. But I have great respect for the CIA, for the people.
I went there. I have even more respect now because they took me for tours. They showed me. They’re amazing. I made a speech. Now, I know if it’s good or bad. I’m really good at knowing did I do well or did I do poorly? And hopefully...
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: I couldn’t have done so poorly because I won, right?
HANNITY: Yes.
TRUMP: No, but in your own head, you do, too.
HANNITY: I know.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: When you do an interview, you say, You know, I did great or I didn’t do so good. I gave a speech that really was a 10, relatively speaking. I had a standing ovation like you wouldn’t believe. Everybody. And it was such a success.
Trump went on to pretend that he had not stacked the audience at the CIA, despite the clear evidence otherwise. And to continue obsessing about media coverage of his popularity.
TRUMP: OK. So now I see CNN and other people say, Well, who was in the audience from Trump? Trump? I went there with a few people. There’s nobody. It was all CIA. They said, But I heard the first row and the first two—you saw that press conference. Sean [Spicer] did a great job.
But this guy, whoever he was—I don’t even know who he was—he was saying that we stacked the audience. I can’t stack the audience at the CIA. I pay great homage to the wall with the stars. I paid great homage.
And the audience was standing ovation. They actually—they were standing from the beginning. They didn’t even sit down. It was one standing ovation, the whole thing. So I get back—and I will say, Fox treated it great. They said it was great.
When our new person running, Mike Pompeo, who is fantastic—he said to me the other day, That was so great. Everyone loved it. Everybody loved it. When I got back, I saw the speech. They didn’t like it. It wasn’t respectful. It was a smattering of applause. It wasn’t a smattering. It was—there were, like, 300, 350 people in the room. Over 1,000 wanted to come. And if I took a vote right now, I would have won 350 to nothing, believe me. But even that was demeaned as much as they can demean it.
“Great American” Hannity not only didn’t question a word of his Glorious Leader, he seized the moment to suggest that any questioning media should be squelched:
HANNITY: I’ve seen major newspapers, two cable networks that used the word liar. And my question to you is, does that make you want to rethink entirely how this administration will deal with the media?
TRUMP: Well, they are the liars.
From there, Trump continued his obsession with his inauguration crowd size:
TRUMP: Let me give you an example. When Sean [Spicer] got up, he talked about the audience and he talked about—I had the largest audience. I did. I had the largest audience. If you add the television, you add all the sources, the largest audience in the history of inaugurations. I did.
They try and demean it so much. And when you look at pictures—I’d love to show you a picture—when I was in that speech, I looked out, it was a sea of...
HANNITY: Picture of the West Wing (ph).
TRUMP: ... people, and they want to demean it. I don’t even know when that picture was taken, by the way, to be honest with you. But it wasn’t taken from where I was. They take a picture from the back, from the Washington Monument, a backward picture.
They are so demeaning and they are so dishonest. And in many cases now, it’s more of—but when you bring up ...
And how did Hannity respond?
HANNITY: But I don’t remember them treating Barack Obama this way.
TRUMP: They don’t.
Reality check: Trump and Hannity treated Obama as an illegitimate, racist president. Hannity was a most enthusiastic booster of Trump's bogus birtherism (while pretending otherwise). That’s not counting Hannity’s attempts to incite armed insurrection against the federal government while Obama was president.
Later, during a tour of the Oval Office, Trump also revisited his obsession with Alec Baldwin, who does hilarious Trump impressions on Saturday Night Live (see some below).
TRUMP: Well, “Saturday Night Live,” a person from “Saturday Night Live” was terrible. It’s a failing show, it’s not funny. Alec Baldwin is a disaster. He’s terrible on the show. And by the way, I don’t mind some humor but it’s terrible. But for them to attack, for NBC to attack my 10 year old son—
HANNITY: Horrible.
TRUMP: -- it’s a disgrace.
HANNITY: And he’s a great kid.
TRUMP: And he’s a great boy.
HANNITY: I know him. I know—yes.
Trump’s comments about his son referred to a bad joke tweeted by a Saturday Night Live writer, who has now been suspended.
I will not defend nastiness about a child. But let’s not forget the vicious, bullying personal attacks Trump waged on Hannity’s own colleague, Megyn Kelly. Kelly has said she felt the need to hire security guards after Trump targeted her. Whatever you think of her now-infamous question to Trump, his attacks on her were childish, inexcusable and, more to the point, un-presidential and un-American.
Watch the two thin-skinned bullies below, from the January 26, 2017 Hannity show. Underneath, have a good laugh at their expense, via Saturday Night Live.
“The good news is I think The Donald’s constant whining will go a long way to undermine the Republican meme the media is biased against them when they’re simply doing their jobs.”
Hmmmmmmmmmm EOF, that MAY be true — but here’s my question:
Outside of now-retired Dave Letterman, WHY DIDN’T THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA DO THEIR JOBS during the entire 2016 presidential campaign? Here’s an IRREFUTABLE FACT: the media gave Der Fuehrer III a VIRTUAL FREE PASS on his nonstop bigotry, hatred, intimidation tactics, prejudice and racism — remember when he mocked that poor disabled reporter? Here’s another FACT: the ONLY big media personality I know of that had the GUTS to point out on TV that Der Fuehrer III’s “Make America Grope — er, I mean — Great Again” clothing line (and his daughter Ivanka’s) was manufactured outside of the U.S. was Dave Letterman. I sometimes get a gut feeling that, given the fact that Les Moonves (head of CBS Corporation) is and ALWAYS will be a LONGTIME PAL of Der Fuehrer III (remember this infamous smart-a*s remark from Moonves when he defended Der Fuehrer III’s rhetoric last spring? : “Sorry……..it may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS……..The money’s rolling in, and we’re having lots of fun……….Keep it coming Donald……..”), Letterman was really FIRED by Moonves for calling out Der Fuehrer III on his BLATANT HYPOCRISY??