Fox News’ Sean Hannity is doubling down on his claim that the U.S. is on track to accept a quarter of a million refugees from the Middle East, even though his source for this figure says he’s 100 percent wrong.
The Fox host earned a “pants on fire” rating from PunditFact earlier this week for saying on Oct. 19 and Oct. 20 that 250,000 refugees from Syria, Iraq and elsewhere would soon be settled in the United States. Hannity’s estimate is far greater than anything that has been offered by the Obama administration or the press.
PunditFact, a subset of the Tampa Bay Times’ PolitiFact, suggested Monday that Hannity had been tricked by a parody new website that “reported” 250,000 refugees would be relocated to Indian reservations.
But Hannity responded Tuesday by doubling down on his claim, and arguing that “the Left” was trying to undermine his credibility.
“I don’t normally spend my time … responding to stupidity from liberal websites that spend their days attacking me,” he said, denying emphatically that he got 250,000 from a fake news website. “And, by the way, nor do I read the conspiracy websites that apparently they do.”
“Now there’s a group out there called PolitiFact and they’ve been attacking me, and this program, for a figure that I used about refugees being welcomed into the United States,” he added. “So, this one time, I’m going to break my rule: I’ll spend some time fact-checking these so-called fact-checkers.”
He then promised to “teach” the reporters at PolitiFact “some simple addition.”
“I was quoting an [Associated Press] article, entitled ‘Kerry: US to accept 85,000 refugees in 2016, 100,000 in 2017.’ Well, that equals 185,000, right? Well, that’s not all. According to the same report the State Department is currently accepting 70,000 refugees in 2015,” he said. “In other words, they said the 85 on top of the 70 they took in this year. That equals 255,000. That’s how I came to the number.”
But the author of the AP article, Ken Dilanian, told the Washington Examiner’s media desk that Hannity’s estimate is based on a misreading of his report.
“[T]he article says those figures referred to ‘worldwide migrants,’ meaning the total number of refugees taken in by the U.S. – not just those from Syria or the Middle East. The article also clearly states ‘85,000 up from 70,000’ — an additional 15,000 — ‘and that total would rise to 100,000 in 2017,'” he told the Examiner, explaining that the numbers are revisions, not separate figures to be added
“[T]he article is clear,” he said.
Dilanian directed the Examiner’s attention to a New York Times article and video from the Washington Post reporting the same figures on the State Department’s plans to accept refugees from all over the world.
The other problem with Hannity’s “simple addition” on Tuesday is that it added an extra 5,000 immigrants to his original estimate of 250,000.
Prior to his explanation Tuesday evening, Hannity claimed repeatedly that exactly 250,000 Middle Eastern refugees would be permitted into the United States.
On Oct. 19, he said on his television show, “You see the backlash emerging now in Europe over the refugee problem for Syria and Iraq. The president said he’s going to bring in 250,000 refugees into this country.”
Hannity said again on Oct. 20, “You see what’s happening in Europe, there’s a huge backlash because of Syrian refugees and Iraqi refugees and the cost … We’re being told by our National Intelligence Director that ISIS and al-Qaida, not if, they will infiltrate the refugee community. This president has committed to nearly 250,000 coming to America.”
The only other place where the 250,000 estimate makes an appearance is on a fake news website called Real News Right Now.
Other headlines on the satirical website include “Pyongyang to Host 2017 Gathering of the Juggalos,” “ISIS Launches Change.org Petition to Replace ‘Behead’ With ‘Dehead,'” “Starbucks Opens Five Stores in Jordan’s 2nd Largest Refugee Camp” and “Obama Honors Pope Francis with Christening of Next-Generation Combat Drone.”
On Wednesday, a Fox spokeswoman defended the cable news host by saying, “Hannity said last night that he wasn’t just talking about Syria — watch the video.”
The PunditFact reporter who flunked Hannity, Jon Greenberg, told the Examiner, “Long story short, Hannity remains as wrong as ever.”
