Sean Hannity was a driving force behind what has to be the worst U.S. Senate candidate ever, Herschel Walker.

Media Matters put together a mashup video highlighting Hannity’s ridiculous slobbering over Walker with such claims as “the crop of 2022 Republican candidates just got a lot stronger tonight” when Walker announced his candidacy, and “Herschel’s enthusiasm in the state of Georgia seems to be through the roof.”

Media Matters’ Matt Gertz wrote, “With Herschel Walker’s runoff defeat, it’s time to point and laugh at Sean Hannity." And thank God for that because that jaw-droppingly awful and hypocritical candidate came way too close to winning.

Walker’s introduction to Republican politics came as a regular on Hannity’s show during the 2020 election cycle, when his pro-Trump takes made him a MAGA sensation. Then, after Trump lost and Hannity turned his attention to the 2022 midterms, the Fox host recruited Walker to run against Warnock. In a series of interviews, Hannity urged Walker to seek the Senate seat and pushed other Republicans to support his candidacy.

Gertz noted that every other Republican running statewide in Georgia won with at least 51% of the vote. Walker, of course, was unable to reach 50%, triggering last night’s runoff which he lost to Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock.

It's not a huge surprise that Hannity should have been gaga for a Black man whose candidacy was an insult to Blacks and a foreseeable humiliation to the man Hannity was pushing. Tucker Carlson may have overtaken Hannity as Fox's biggest bigot, but Hannity earned the title first.

Gertz concludes:

Walker’s defeat makes his campaign the latest case study to demonstrate the limits of Fox’s influence. Its hosts can get their chosen candidates through the party’s primaries. But the toxic extremists who attract Fox stars' interest are often deeply alienating to normal people, and that is making it harder for the GOP to win elections. Meanwhile, the Fox personalities who wield the most influence over the party are pointing fingers at everyone but themselves.

Gertz is right, as usual, but nobody should underestimate Fox’s power to influence our elections as well as our politics. Had Walker been just a little less obviously awful, he would probably be on his way to the U.S. Senate. Like another Fox-backed terrible candidate, the lying hypocrite who is now Senator-elect JD Vance.

But do have a laugh at Hannity talking up Big Loser Walker below, in Media Matters’ montage video. It's well deserved.