How Far Will Sean Hannity Go in Defending Trump?

The Fox News host is reaching more than 13 million people a day.

November 28, 2017 10:33 am
Sean Hannity
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 21: Host Sean Hannity on set of FOX's "Hannity With Sean Hannity" at FOX Studios on April 21, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Paul Zimmerman/Getty Images)

Sean Hannity is one of the last remaining members of the original 1996 Fox News lineup; his show, Hannity, is the top nightly cable show in the United States. He has also been a talk-radio host for nearly three decades. According to a new profile in The New York Times Magazine, he reaches approximately 13.5 million Americans on his daily iHeartRadio show.

Hannity also has an unyielding support for the agenda of President Donal Trump. During the campaign, when tapes were released of Trump bragging of grabbing women by their genitals, Hannity went the opposite way of most party figures, who were calling for Trump to step aside and put his running mate, Mike Pence, on top of the ticket. But Hannity said the “locker room” comments were wrong, but called the tape a “politically motivated distraction,” according to NYT Magazine. This was a pivotal moment for Hannity and Trump, and sealed the bond between the two conservatives.

“If you look back at those traumas,” Gerald Rivera, a long-time friend of Hannity’s, told NYT Magazine, “you’ll see that Hannity steadied the whole of conservative politics during those crucial times. And I think he plays much the same role now. He’s firm in his support of the president, and woe unto you if you don’t see things the same way. He’s a shield.”

And it has remained that way. Hannity and Trump speak regularly, and a friend told NYT Magazine that Hannity serves as a sounding board for the president. Though friendships between the president and a journalist isn’t new, the thing that makes this one difference is the extent of Hannity’s reach: he is talking four hours a day, has large social media presences, and works at Fox, which is an institution of Republican power, as Nicole Hemmer, a scholar of media history at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, said to NYT Magazine.

Hannity has recently taken to launching assaults against Republicans who are not sufficiently supportive of the president’s agenda, like Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, or Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.

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