Media Matters
Fox host Sean Hannity, a professional propagandist for President Donald Trump, also has a history of bigotry, sexism, and pushing conspiracy theories. Below is a quick tour through Hannity’s career:
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Hannity was fired from his first radio job after saying that gay people are prone to disease because they consume each other's feces during sex.
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After outlets banned selling the Confederate flag, Hannity demanded that they also stop selling rap music.
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Hannity promised that he would be waterboarded for charity but has never followed through. He also slammed a football into his desk, screaming, “Imagine this is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's head. Dunk it in water so we can save American lives."
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Hannity defended a killer convicted of multiple counts of premeditated first-degree and second-degree murder. He also has lauded Trayvon Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman.
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Hannity used footage from a Glenn Beck rally to make a Michele Bachmann rally look bigger than it actually was.
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Hannity lied about Michelle Obama’s senior thesis in order to portray her as a radical.
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Hannity praised conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who claims that the 9/11 terror attacks and the Sandy Hook massacre were committed by the U.S. government, telling him he was doing a “great job.”
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Hannity’s source for anti-Clinton information was a former editor of the Weekly World News who frequently wrote about Bigfoot and aliens. Hannity also has a bizarre fascination with Hillary Clinton’s underwear.
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Hannity accused Black Lives Matter of advocating for cop-killing and compared the movement to the KKK.
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Hannity agreed with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) that the Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision constituted “some of the darkest 24 hours in our nation’s history.”
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Hannity said that only idiots refer to “climate change” -- he just calls it the weather.
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Hannity defended Donald Trump’s racist attacks on a federal judge overseeing the Trump University case.
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Hannity wanted to make sure that parents can teach kids that “being gay is not normal.”
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Hannity got interested in the birther conspiracy about Obama right around the same time that Trump did. Hannity later offered to pay for the Obamas to fly to Kenya if they would never come back.
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Hannity appeared in an actual Donald Trump campaign ad. During a debate, Trump demanded that Americans call Sean Hannity to verify the then-candidate’s Iraq War lie.
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Cable news hosts surveyed about their colleagues deemed Hannity the worst of cable news hosts, which made him furious. Later, when a Wall Street Journal editor called him “Fox News’ dumbest anchor,” Hannity had a late-night meltdown on Twitter.
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During one of their many interviews, Hannity fed Trump a lie about Syrian refugees from a hoax website. Trump then began repeating it at campaign events.
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Hannity declared the probe into Russian hacking during the 2016 election a “liberal media fake news story.”
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Discredited pundit Dick Morris gave Republican donors a tour of Hannity’s studio, and they discussed politics with Hannity in his green room.
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Hannity speculated that Colin Kaepernick protested the national anthem because “he might have converted to Islam.”
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Hannity also denied that Trump had been hostile to non-white voters.
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VICE mocked Hannity’s martial arts skills and described Hannity as “the kind of bro who talks up his street fighting skills on Twitter.”
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Hannity said that John Legend -- who won an Academy Award for his song in the historical drama Selma -- “doesn’t know anything” about voting rights.
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After Seth Rich’s family pleaded with Fox to stop pushing a conspiracy theory about his murder, Hannity continued hammering the issue, seemingly to distract from an investigation of Trump and his campaign’s ties to Russia.
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Hannity laughably said police officers won’t bother black Americans if they’re not “part of a gang.”
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Hannity asked if affirmative action is as “equally wrong” as racial discrimination.
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Hannity justified Trump’s attack on a Muslim Gold Star family during the 2016 election and actually asked Trump during an interview why the family was targeting him.
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After Trump used the term “anchor baby” in a political ad, Hannity defended using the slur to describe the American citizen children of undocumented immigrants. He claimed there was “no other term to use,” apparently forgetting the term “American citizen.”
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Hannity smeared black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. as racist by distorting a 1994 interview he gave on C-SPAN. He missed the fact that Gate’s comments were about an event in 1959.
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Hannity repeatedly employed anti-Muslim smears against Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), including saying that Ellison taking the oath of office on the Quran was akin to using “Hitler’s Mein Kampf, which is the Nazi bible.”
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Hannity falsely accused a former Obama administration official of concealing a statutory rape from two decades previous.
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Hannity baselessly claimed a different former Obama administration official wanted to “force sterilizations” on Americans.
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Hannity pushed the “death panels” smear of Obamacare in a book.
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Hannity joined other conspiracy theorists pushing baseless claims about Hillary Clinton’s health during the 2016 presidential election, specifically saying that she was having “seizures.”
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Hannity said that a 2006 Democratic midterm election victory could be a “victory for the terrorists.”
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Hannity attacked Obama for putting “fancy” Dijon mustard on his food. Seriously.
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Hannity criticized Obama’s children for going to the Bahamas and Idaho during spring break, complaining about the cost to taxpayers, yet years later he denied he had ever criticized them. He has yet to criticize Trump or his family for any of their travels or for the fact that Melania and Barron Trump live in New York.
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Hannity lauded Trump’s use of a teleprompter during the 2016 campaign, after spending years attacking Obama for using a teleprompter.
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Hannity asked WikiLeaks to back up his baseless assertion that the CIA framed the Russian government for 2016 election interference.
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Hannity urged Facebook to show live video of violence and murder so people could “understand the nature of evil.” He defended this call by saying that kids have already seen violence given “the games” they play.
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Hannity urged Trump to arrest 46 U.S. attorneys after he dismissed them.
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Hannity claimed that Obama’s campaign database is proof of “a shadow government” and that it demonstrates that Hannity's “not the great conspiracy theorist that some people may think I am.”
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Hannity warned his viewers that the “globalist establishment” is “in bed with the Republican establishment” and said it was “reminiscent of former Soviet Union propaganda and mind control.” (Remember when he said he wasn’t a conspiracy theorist?)
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Hannity claimed that “everything that conspiracy theorists have said over the years” is “true.” He added that “it’s a media assault on your mind.”
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Hannity suggested that former Bill Clinton aide Vince Foster’s suicide was a “massive coverup” and that the Clintons may have been involved.
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Hannity said in 2008 that “demoniz[ing]” Hillary Clinton is “my job.”
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Hannity refused to rebuke Trump’s false claim, originating from tabloid The National Enquirer, that Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) father was involved with John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Hannity has said the Enquirer “gets a lot of things right.”
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Hannity falsely claimed that Obama “is Bill Ayers” and “is Reverend Wright.”
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Hannity criticized a women’s sexual health study by claiming female students “seem to be the only ones getting stimulated.” Ew.
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To defend Trump's decision to fire then-FBI Director James Comey, Hannity invoked a dubious claim originating from the “alt-right” that Comey could have been implicated in leaking classified information.
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Hannity defended Glenn Beck’s claim that Obama is “a racist.”
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Hannity attacked the judges who ruled against Trump’s Muslim ban, claiming they put Americans’ lives “literally in jeopardy.”
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Hannity lauded rancher Cliven Bundy’s refusal to comply with the federal government’s demand that he pay grazing fees for using public land, with Bundy calling Hannity a “hero.”
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Hannity completely flipped his views on WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, going from calling for his arrest to claiming he had “done a lot of good” after he targeted Clinton during the 2016 election.
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Hannity called Hillary Clinton’s laugh “frightening.”
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Hannity falsely claimed that the killing of Osama Bin Laden was “thanks to George Bush,” even though the operation was ordered by Obama.
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Hannity has repeatedly attacked women getting birth control, saying, “I won’t have sex, but I’ll be paying for the birth control, not fair.”
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Hannity refused to accept a T-shirt from firefighters because they supported Obama.
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Hannity pushed the misleading claim that 47 percent of Americans don’t pay taxes well before Mitt Romney did.
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Hannity attacked people on food stamps for having an “entitlement mindset.”
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Hannity defended Augusta National Golf Club’s men-only policy by comparing it to a “girls night out.”
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Hannity has told poor people to “quit drinking soda and drink water” and suggested you “can survive off” of only rice and beans.
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Hannity defended Rush Limbaugh’s attack on Sandra Fluke by saying Limbaugh was just “trying to be funny.”
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Hannity in 2012 lauded Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Louie Gohmert (R-TX) as “modern day Paul Reveres” for claiming the Muslim Brotherhood was infiltrating the government.
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Hannity argued in 2012 that Obama supporters would defend Obama if he was “robbing a bank and shooting all the tellers.”
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Hannity asked if Obama compared himself to Trayvon Martin because “he smoked pot and he did a little blow.”
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Hannity attacked California for enacting a law protecting transgender students, saying, “What do we do with the 7-year-old girl that goes into the locker room and there's the 14-year-old boy naked in the girls' locker room because that's where he chooses to be?"
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Hannity has repeatedly attacked Pope Francis, saying he is “against capitalism” and laughably suggested he is “not really in a position … to lecture anybody on what it means to be good Christians.”
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Hannity in 2013 claimed that Obama on World AIDS Day discussed AIDS in order to “change the topic” from the Affordable Care Act.
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Hannity attacked the Transportation Security Administration for making an animated video explaining the airport screening process for children, calling it “indoctrination.”
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Hannity defended Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson when he called homosexuality sinful and similar to bestiality, saying his comments reflect “old-fashioned traditional Christian sentiment and values.”
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Hannity mocked Obama for wearing a bicycle helmet while bicycling, calling it “embarrassing.”
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Hannity said that because he lived in New York, he knew “what it’s like to live under communism.”
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Hannity predicted that New York City would become “a mess” because the city’s mayor wanted to close public schools during certain Muslim holidays.
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Hannity questioned how the 2012 Benghazi attacks were any different from Watergate, saying, “Four Americans weren’t abandoned to be murdered in Watergate.”
BONUS: Hannity was described by the website Wonkette as “the dumbest motherfucker on planet Earth.”