In the year 2525, when the Oxford Dictionary is fully interactive, the word “partisan” will include the following clip:
Fox News’ Sean Hannity really is quite incredible.
There is not a position the man won’t adopt in the name of defending President Trump. There is no right or wrong on his evening program. There is only pro-Trump.
For example: Trump tried to fire special counsel Robert Mueller last June, according to a report published Thursday evening by the New York Times. The only reason the president didn’t go through with the firing, the report claimed, is because the White House legal counsel threatened to quit in protest.
When Hannity got word of the report, he was hosting his Fox evening program. His first reaction, of course, was to cry fake news.
Don’t believe it, he told his viewers.
“At this hour, the New York Times is trying to distract you. They have a story that Trump wanted Mueller fired sometime last June, and our sources and I’ve checked in with many of them, they’re not confirming that tonight,” he said.
Hannity added, “And the president’s attorney dismissed the story and says, ‘Nope. No comment. We’re not going there.’ And how many times has the New York Times and others gotten it wrong?”
He then brought on recently fired White House staffer Sebastian Gorka and failed presidential candidate Herman Cain to agree with him that the Times’ story was likely a bogus distraction from the real news of the day (i.e. Hillary Clinton’s State Department emails).
A few interviews and a commercial break later, Fox’s Ed Henry confirmed the Times’ reporting.
No problem for Hannity. He merely staked out a new pro-Trump position.
“Alright so we have sources tonight just confirming to Ed Henry, ‘Yeah maybe Donald Trump wanted to fire the special counsel for conflict.’ Does he not have the right to raise those questions?” the incredulous host asked.
Just so we’re clear here: Hannity argued Thursday evening that a report that reflected poorly on the president was probably fake. After his own network confirmed the story was true, he pivoted to arguing it was no big deal. And all this in the span of around 10 minutes.
Impressive.
He then moved on from the confirmation of the story to some really neat footage of a car chase.
