In reaction to the violent incident in which pro-Trump group the Proud Boys assaulted protesters after attending an event at a Manhattan Republican club by group founder Gavin McInnes, Sean Hannity falsely claimed on the October 15 edition of his radio show that he “had never heard of” the Proud Boys. In addition to hosting McInnes 24 times on his Fox News show, Hannity also hosted "prominent Proud Boy" Jovi Val on his radio show in 2017, giving him and far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer a platform to talk about “political violence.”
Val has participated in Proud Boy events and last August was a speaker at the second edition of the Unite the Right rally, a white supremacist melee organized by white nationalist Jason Kessler. The first edition of Unite the Right, held in Charlottesville, VA, resulted in the death of counterprotester Heather Hayer after a white supremacist rammed a car into a crowd.
From the July 20, 2017, edition of Premiere Radio Network's The Sean Hannity Show:
SEAN HANNITY (HOST): There was an incident that occurred while dancing at a bar, OK? A person has a Make America Great hat on their head and it falls on the floor. Then a bar patron, Emma Rodriguez, allegedly stomps on this person Val’s hat. Val told The Rebel that after he asked her to stop and he placed his hand on her shoulder to move her away, Rodriguez’s boyfriend allegedly attacked Val from behind with a beer bottle. Anyway, so this individual and Rodriguez allegedly continued the assault against Val bleeding out on the floor of the bar. Anyway, here to give us more information about all of this, Laura Loomer is a commentator for Rebel, and also joining us is Dr. Joseph Pober is with us and pro-Trump activist Jovi Val. ... All right, Jovi, you’re the person that's a victim in all of this. So tell me what happened. You have a -- so I guess the --
JOVI VAL: I was leaving a party and then we decided to go to another bar, me and my friends, and I had the Make America Great Again hat, red with white lettering, you know, the iconic one. And I’m there for a few hours just dancing and the people that attacked me were there too and finally my hat falls on the floor and I guess she took advantage of that and started stepping on it. I gave her the benefit of the doubt -- I was like, you know, maybe she accidentally stepped on it so I gave her some time to redeem herself, and it was like, nope, she’s stomping on it, she’s scraping it against the floor, mind you there’s liquor and glass on the floor, she doesn't care, she’s so angry. And I’m just looking at her like, “What are you doing?” And then she’s like, “I hate the hat, I hate you.” And I’m like, this is not -- I’m not for this right now. This is not the time for this. So I moved her away to get my hat and I go to get my hat and then the guy sees me do that to her, he sees me move her away, and next thing you know, he puts his hands on me, he punches me right in my nose, breaks my nose, cuts my face, she hits me in the back of the head with a glass bottle and I know for sure if I did not have the hat on this would have never happened. And people are saying that, you know, “Oh, you should have just waited for her to get off your hat” and I’m just like, “No, I’m sorry, but -- “
…
HANNITY: Now, how many other people, Laura, because I know you spend a lot of time on social media, and Twitter, and I know you’re been doing a lot of reporting and commentating for Rebel, but how many instances of this are happening that nobody is reporting?
LAURA LOOMER: There's a lot of them, all across the country, but Jovi was the second friend of mine and the second Trump activist in one week here in New York City to be attacked and beaten. There were a group of Proud Boys who went to a bar in New York the same week that Jovi was attacked and they were wearing their hats and they were with a disabled individual, and a Democrat who described himself as a member of antifa took the cane away from the disabled Republican and used it to beat the other Trump supporters over the head. So, one of my friends, he had to get staples in his head because his head was cracked open because he was a victim of left-wing political violence. Another one of my friends who was there received a broken -- I don’t know if he broke his nose but he definitely had a black eye and some cuts on his face. So, the injuries are severe and Dr. Pober, after examining Jovi’s face, had said that if he had been hit a little harder Jovi’s face could have been paralyzed, he lost a significant amount of blood and it could have actually killed him. So when are we going to start classifying antifa and these violent leftist groups as terrorist organizations, when is [New York City Mayor] Bill DeBlasio going to take a stand against these hate crimes against conservatives?
Previously:
Gavin McInnes advocates using the slur “faggot”
Member of violent men-only fraternal organization Proud Boys goes on Infowars to recruit
Video by John Kerr. This post has been updated with additional information.