Hannity: Ted Kennedy won't be "happy until" we have "mass slaughter" in Iraq

On the January 10 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, while discussing Democrats' unfavorable reaction to President Bush's then-forthcoming speech, in which he proposed to send more than 20,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq, Fox News host Sean Hannity said, "[T]o be honest about this, I'm convinced that some of these left-wingers, like [Sen.] Ted Kennedy [D-MA], and some of these other groups -- they're not going to be happy until we have a repeat of ... mass slaughter." Kennedy has introduced a Senate bill that would "prohibit the use of funds for an escalation of United States military forces in Iraq above the numbers existing as of January 9, 2007." Hannity continued "I guarantee you if [Kennedy and others] are successful in their, quote, "redeployment retreat," I guarantee there will be a mass slaughter, a human toll that we have not seen since the killing fields or Saddam Hussein, depending on which one you want to say."

As Media Matters for America previously noted, on the August 22, 2006, edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Hannity asserted that "some people are saying" that a Democratic victory in the November elections would be a "victory for the terrorists."

From the January 10 edition of ABC Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show:

HANNITY: So the president is going to speak tonight.

[...]

And one of the main points that he's expected to make is that we need a troop surge, or the need to send additional troops to Baghdad for a period of time to push back the terrorists, the insurgency, the Baathists, to end the sectarian violence. And it's mind-numbing and shocking that it is -- and yet, although very predictable that in the lead-up to the president's speech tonight, you have one congressional Democrat after another scheming, plotting, planning on ways to diminish the importance of the president's announcements, denounce what he is proposing, you know, go against immediately his efforts to adjust our military response to the enemy. One liberal Democrat after another, one press conference after another, one TV appearance after another, one statement released after another, denouncing the president, denouncing his efforts to reinforce the troops. You get a steady drumbeat of defeatism, and ultimately what this is, is an ideology of pacifism that is aimed at ensuring that we lose in Iraq. And we can lose there. But let your heart be troubled. And to be honest about this, I'm convinced that some of these left-wingers, like Ted Kennedy, and some of these other groups -- they're not going to be happy until we have a repeat of the kind of mass slaughter -- which, by the way, will happen. If you care, on a humanitarian level about people, about humanity, I guarantee you if they're successful in their, quote, "redeployment retreat," I guarantee there will be a mass slaughter, a human toll that we have not seen since the killing fields or Saddam Hussein, depending on which one you want to say.

—K.D.