Fox News host Sean Hannity on Wednesday sought to put distance between himself and President Trump’s rhetoric about the press, saying on his program his colleagues were not examples of so-called “fake news.”
Hannity apologized to his co-workers who thought his remarks referred to them, and said they have a hard job and “take some heat because of what their opinion-side friends say.”
“You’ve heard me say it all the time, every day, every night, because I believe it’s true, that there’s a lot of fake news,” he said. “I want to be very clear, especially after hearing some commentary and reading some things: I was not and would never refer to my friends, my colleagues here at the Fox News Channel in those remarks.”
Hannity additionally said his controversial appearance on stage at a Trump rally held Monday night in Missouri before the 2018 midterm elections was not premeditated.
The Trump campaign had promoted Hannity as a “special guest.” Hannity said he was not campaigning with Trump, rather he was attending to cover the event.
But Trump called Hannity up on stage Monday evening, much to the chagrin of his Fox News bosses. The cable news network released a statement Tuesday describing Hannity’s involvement as “an unfortunate distraction.”
“The president — I had no idea — he invited me on stage,” Hannity said Wednesday. “I’ll be honest, I was honored by the president’s request. It was not planned.”
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