Sean Hannity knew he’d have a bigger audience for his show on Tuesday night. On the heels of the revelations connected to Donald Trump Jr.’s emails and the coinciding story published by the New York Times, the Fox News host had the president’s son on the show to offer his side of the story and defend the entire mess. The results was an interview was catered to Trump’s every defense, played up scandals involving opponents and other government figures, and allowed Trump Jr. to play the victim of someone else’s plot — possibly the Democrats according to Hannity.
The interview didn’t cover any of the denials for the past year or how the meeting seems to have changed since the earliest reports. Instead, Trump Jr. claims he was just doing what anybody would do during the heat of a cutthroat campaign and the entire mess was just a big pile of nothing that left him flustered. Just a big silly misunderstanding that Hannity seemed willing to support.
The Fox News host was doing some heavy lifting before Trump Jr. even spoke his first words on the show. Not only did he address the members of the media in typical Hannity fashion during his opening monologue, criticizing the mainstream media — which he is apart of — for reporting only the stories he claims only support their side and unleashing attacks on the president and his family. This despite the actions of both Fox News and President Trump during the two terms of Barack Obama.
Once the interview begins, Trump Jr. wastes little time in offering up a defense of his meeting, explaining his release of the emails, and making sure everybody knows that the meeting offered nothing of value. Trump Jr. claims he released the emails on Tuesday to offer full transparency and just put all of the information out there, countering the New York Times claim that it happened because he had heard about their story. It is almost like he took cues from his father before sitting down with Hannity, echoing many of the same comments that the president has made about his taxes when questioned about the release of any other documents connected to the meeting.
He does offer one thing that even Hannity points out isn’t very Trumpian and that’s a regret at how the meeting was handled. Despite not even the FBI knowing about this meeting until the reports began over the weekend, Trump Jr. claims he wanted to be open while also being willing to say that hindsight is 20/20:
“In retrospect, I probably would have done things a little differently,”
“Maybe they had something, you know, maybe concrete evidence to all the stories I’d been hearing about … so I think I wanted to hear it out. But really it went nowhere…It was literally just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame”
The reactions to the interview flowed out as expected, with many pointing out Hannity’s very soft touch while chatting with the president’s son:
Hannity—who spent an entire segment analyzing Obama's choice of mustard—just said he can't think of any more questions to ask Trump Junior.
— LeGate (@williamlegate) July 12, 2017
Hannity to Don Jr (after 20 minutes) "I wanted to ask you every question I could think of, I can't think of anymore."
SDFUHSALUFAH;WTWAW
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) July 12, 2017
At the end of it, nothing was gained except a flood of embarrassing footage if any other details trickle out about the meeting and Russian involvement in the Trump campaign. It was mostly a chance for Hannity to lecture the media and once again provide a safe space for the president’s side of the story.
(Via Fox News)