Hannity finally came up with his angle on Monday night, after passing on the story on Thursday and Friday. The loyal Trump apparatchik alleged during his monologue that “the media mob” and Democrats are unfairly trying to “smear” Trump by linking him to Robinson. (Trump’s endorsement helped the North Carolina lieutenant governor secure the Republican nomination for governor, and the former president has compared him favorably to Martin Luther King Jr. As of Tuesday morning, the former president still had not retracted his endorsement.)

Hannity described Robinson as “accused of making offensive comments that no conservative or Republican would ever agree with,” though he did not detail either the comments or where he made them.

“Now, I don't know, we don't know if the allegations are true,” Hannity continued. “It's odd. He's been in office three years and apparently nobody or very few people in North Carolina knew much about any of this. And if it wasn't big news in North Carolina, then Donald Trump certainly didn't know either."

He compared Trump’s relationship with Robinson to Vice President Kamala Harris’ past “effusive praise of P. Diddy, now credibly accused of horrible sex crimes."

“The left has a major double standard when it comes to so-called guilt by association,” he said at the top of a second segment on the story later in the show. “Now, for years, they have tried to smear, slander, besmirch Donald Trump for his alleged connections to various people. Now, the lieutenant governor, gubernatorial candidate in North Carolina, Mark Robinson, is the latest example.”

“In North Carolina, they're running ads trying to tie Donald Trump, who I'm pretty certain knew nothing because most people in North Carolina didn't seem to know about any of these controversial statements,” he complained to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

“You're in South Carolina,” he added. “Did you ever hear of it before? Because I hadn't.”

Graham responded that Robinson “needs to address the allegations” because “he is unfit for office if they are true,” but he defended Trump, saying the former president “didn’t do anything with Mark Robinson” and is the victim of “guilt by association.”

Hannity’s remarks were the first time his program had addressed the story, which broke on Thursday afternoon. That is nonetheless more coverage than some of his colleagues have provided: Robinson’s porn site comments have not been mentioned on Jesse Watters Primetime, The Ingraham Angle, or Gutfeld! 

Hannity’s take echoes comments Greg Gutfeld made on The Five last week. When co-host Jessica Tarlov, a liberal, mentioned Robinson's comments on Thursday’s edition of the panel show, Gutfeld responded, “How dare you kink shame,” and suggested that the story had no bearing on Trump because the former president was unaware “this guy was on porn sites.” The Five has not returned to the story since.

Meanwhile, Greg Kelly is carving out a niche as the explicitly pro-Robinson host on Fox competitor Newsmax.

“My message to the guy running in North Carolina, Mark Robinson — he's going through a tough time right now,” Kelly said on Monday. “I don't want him to drop out. I think he's getting a raw deal. Mark Robinson — let's go ahead and put it up — please, do not drop out.”

Kelly went on to offer these defenses of Robinson:

• “They found an email address and they think they tracked it to a porn site where he may or may not have been active a dozen years ago when he was a private citizen and a forklift operator. OK? A forklift operator — you're allowed to do that when you come home from work.”

• “I'm not buying that he is a Nazi sympathizer. … Anybody remember Seinfeld? Anybody remember the Soup Nazi? The whole country thought this was funny.”

• “I don't care what kind of pornography he liked or did not like or anything like that. One thing no one has alleged — he doesn't like anything with kids. And that's the important part, don't you think?”

Correction (9/25/24): This piece originally misidentified Robinson as a Senate candidate. Robinson is running for governor.