Sean Hannity has a lot riding on the Trump presidency. The Fox News host has been a frequent dinner guest at the White House and reportedly speaks to Donald Trump on the phone multiple times a day, including a long nightly call after Sean’s show. He is the de facto voice of the Trump White House and Fox News helpfully gives him an hour every night to misinform and distort the day’s news for the aging Fox News audience.
So, how did Sean Hannity handle the news that Trump’s former campaign manager was convicted on eight felony counts and his former “fixer” and personal attorney made a plea deal on another eight felony counts and made a statement in court directly implicating the president in a federal crime? Not well. Not well at all. Hannity turned to his audience to howl about how out of control the Mueller investigation is, far from the original intent (it isn’t) and appeared to be laying the groundwork to his audience for the eventual Trump attempt to shut down the investigation.
In this 13-minute meltdown, Hannity uses selective facts, outdated statements and outright falsehoods to twist a narrative. He begins the segment saying, “we will give you information, I promise, and perspective, that you will not get anywhere else as the media is once again beside themselves with false reporting, speculation and hysteria.” Mmmmmkay, Sean. “They” are reporting on the extremely damaging news that Trump’s longtime personal attorney directly implicated Donald Trump in a felony crime. Seems like big news.
As you watch, keep in mind that Donald Trump isn’t the only one being exposed as a fraud and potential criminal in this investigation, Hannity may well have a dog in this fight too. After all, after the FBI obtained a search warrant and confiscated documents and electronic devices, Cohen made a bizarre assertion to the court that Sean Hannity was a client. Why? Because Cohen probably made embarrassing recordings of his frequent calls with Sean Hannity.
So, let’s breakdown this segment a bit further to show precisely how Hannity is priming his audience.
- Hannity notes a “northern Virginia” jury convicted Manafort. This is a lowkey attempt to make a claim that the jury was perhaps unfair because it comes from the more purple or blue part of the state.
- He claimed Mueller is stacking charges to get dirt on Donald Trump, ignoring the fact that Manafort repeatedly committed multiple felonies. He also notes that Manafort “worked for Trump for only a little over 100 days.” Oh, Sean. Sweetie, it wasn’t that long ago you were saying this:
- Hannity goes on to say that “these are decades old crimes!” and “No collusion! Zero to do with Donald Trump!” Except they aren’t and let’s recall that while Manafort was cashing in with his Ukrainian and Russian benefactors during the campaign, Manafort and the Trump campaign persuaded the Republican National Committee to change one item in their platform at the RNC Convention. One, teeny, tiny item that happened to be a big favor to Russia:
President Trump may have been involved with a change to the Republican Party campaign platform last year that watered down support for U.S. assistance to Ukraine, according to new information from someone who was involved.
Diana Denman, a Republican delegate who supported arming U.S. allies in Ukraine, has told people that Trump aide J.D. Gordon said at the Republican Convention in 2016 that Trump directed him to support weakening that position in the official platform.
Yeah, about that platform change that greatly benefited Russia. Donald Trump has dropped quite “tell” this morning as he appears to be publicly dangling a pardon for Paul Manafort, only hours after Manafort’s lawyer stood at the courthouse and said his client was considering his options. Of course, his primary option and best course of action is to cooperate with the Mueller investigation.
Throw another obstruction log on the fire. Donald Trump is quite publicly hinting to Manafort he will take care of him. This would be an impeachable act. Straight up.
- Hannity then moves on to whine about how unfair these prosecutions are, that these people are only being targeted because they are friends with Donald Trump. Hannity, are you sweating too? Of course, trying to change the subject, Hannity helpfully lists all the so-called crimes of Democrats that were never charged. Bless his heart.