Hannity Asks Iraq War Press Secretary Ari Fleischer Why People Would Rely On Unreliable Sources During Wartime

Sean Hannity and former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer slammed The New York Times on Monday for relying too heavily on the claims of Hamas during the ongoing war in Gaza.

Earlier in the day, the paper issued an editor’s note about a story it ran last week stating that an Israeli airstrike struck a hospital in Gaza City:

The Times’s initial accounts attributed the claim of Israeli responsibility to Palestinian officials, and noted that the Israeli military said it was investigating the blast. However, the early versions of the coverage — and the prominence it received in a headline, news alert and social media channels — relied too heavily on claims by Hamas, and did not make clear that those claims could not immediately be verified.

On Monday, Hannity sought the counsel of Fleischer, who, as the Bush administration’s mouthpiece, claimed Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

“Ari, you know, they relied too much on the terror group Hamas’ information,” the host said. “Why would you rely on any information – never mind too much? I’m having a hard time understanding that philosophy.”

“If today’s New York Times covered the Allied D-Day of 1944, the United States wouldn’t have the will to win World War II,” Fleischer replied.

Fleischer served as White House press secretary from January 2001 to July 2003. He and other Bush administration officials touted the WMD claims to the media to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq. At the time, those claims were repeated by Hannity, other Fox News hosts, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, and virtually every other mainstream media outlet in the U.S.

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and 4,400 U.S. service members were killed during the invasion and subsequent occupation.

Ultimately, Iraq was shown to have no weapons of destruction.

Watch above via Fox News.