WSJ Editor Keeps Feud with ‘Huckster’ Hannity Going: Is He ‘Stupid or Dishonest’?
In the past few days, Fox News’ Sean Hannity has been harshly criticized by both CNN host Brian Stelter and Wall Street Journal editor Bret Stephens. He fought back against both, but the latter hit back in a pretty brutal column that basically went right to the core of Hannity’s love of Donald Trump.
Hannity, possibly because of all those polls showing Trump behind, has recently taken to saying that the Republican establishment and people like Stephens will be to blame if Trump loses. (And not, y’know, Trump himself or people like Hannity who have been unapologetic boosters of his candidacy.)
Stephens gets things started in his column tonight (titled “Sean Hannity’s Veneration of Ignorance”) by saying “Mr. Hannity has never made a secret of his feelings for Mr. Trump, which is the love that dares to speak its name.”
He likens him to a cult member, says he’s the kind of “political huckster” that puts Al Sharpton to shame, and even said that Hannity’s responses to him show “he can’t even swear competently.”
But Stephens also looks at the overall picture of what Hannity has been saying on his show for years: the Republican establishment did nothing to stop President Obama. Stephens rebuts that argument and says this:
[I]t’s hard to understand the constant lament about a do-nothing Congress except by wondering whether Mr. Hannity is stupid or dishonest.
Some anti-Trump conservatives have already started weighing in on Twitter, and New York Times columnist Ross Douthat supplemented Stephens’ column with this tweetstorm:
Remarkably, in this brutal takedown @StephensWSJ still gives @seanhannity too much credit: https://t.co/M6bDNWvmSK
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) August 9, 2016
That is, he suggests Hannity actually has an *ideological *commitment to Trumpism, and plans to fight for Trumpist ideas beyond November.
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) August 9, 2016
Anything's possible, but there's no reason to think Hannity has embraced an anti-NATO, anti-free trade, anti-entitlement reform worldview.
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) August 9, 2016
What he's embraced is just Trump — for the same reason he embraces *whatever* force seems most powerful in the GOP. Because he's a hack.
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) August 9, 2016
Hannity has been a Bush-worshiper, a Tea Partier, a born-again immigration reformer, a Tea Partier again, now a Trumpist.
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) August 9, 2016
The only thru-line: Power worship and ratings chasing.
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) August 9, 2016
Which isn't to say Trumpism won't survive, even thrive. But it will need leaders who actually believe its tenets. Not just thugs and hacks.
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) August 9, 2016
And Sean Hannity? Tell me who has power, tell me who drives ratings, and I'll tell you where he stands. But just until the wind changes.
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) August 9, 2016
You can read Stephens’ full column here.
[image via screengrab]
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