True to his conservatism, Sean Hannity will distribute his own wealth to an Obamacare call center employee who was fired from her job for speaking with him on-air Monday.
In an interview on Hannity’s radio program Thursday, Earline Davis of Panama City, Fla., said that she was terminated for taking a phone call from Hannity at her operator’s post and providing polite but painfully honest answers to his questions about people’s reaction to Obamacare enrollment. Contending that this hardly should have been a fireable offense, Hannity pledged $26,000 in tax-free ‘gifts’ to Davis and her two children — a sum to match her previous yearly salary — and help in finding her a new job.
“You are patient, you are kind, you answered all our questions. You were totally honest,” Hannity said to Davis Thursday of their call on Monday. “Wasn’t that what you were hired to do?”
“Yeah, I’m just out here trying to help everybody,” Davis responded in a soft-spoken tone.
On Monday, Hannity asked Davis if anyone who had called into the call center said they liked Healthcare.gov, to which Davis replied, “Umm, no, not really.”
The grounds of her firing aren’t shocking given the strong caution with which government-affiliated agencies and organizations typically approach the media. Davis, however, claimed that her superiors never advised her during her training about contact with the media, and it was only after her encounter with Hannity that they told her speaking with a journalist or a broadcaster was prohibited. Hannity said that this should not have been held against her.
“[I]n other words, they didn’t tell you before you were hired, they didn’t tell you during your training, but then they told you after the fact that you aren’t allowed to be on the media if somebody called in. It’s not your fault I called,” Hannity said.
In addition to the $26,000 gift, Hannity put the word out to his Florida radio affiliates to help Davis return full-time to her previous industry, the restaurant business, in which she said she has cooked, waited tables and tended bar.
“My goal is to get you back to work soon, and that is a little extra bonus money to do whatever you want with it,” Hannity said.
Audio of the full Thursday interview via Real Clear Politics below.
(h/t Big Journalism)
