AUDIO: Hannity Cites Conspiracy Theorist To Suggest ‘Deep State Fear-Mongering’ Over Coronavirus Is Tanking Economy
On his radio show, Sean Hannity cited a QAonon-pushing conspiracy theorist to suggest it “may be true” that “Deep State” fear-mongering is being used to tank the economy, suppress dissent and force the public to accept government-mandated medicines.
As the coronavirus pandemic has spread through the country, Hannity has come out in vocal defense of President Donald Trump for his administration’s response to the outbreak. The prime-time Fox News show, a fervent supporter and unofficial counselor to the president, has repeatedly pushed back on criticism of Trump and dismissed what he describes as excessive concern by Democrats and the media about the growing global pandemic, saying “we are scaring people unnecessarily.”
“Gateway Pundit points out that, as of yesterday, that the president’s approval rating is fine and he’s getting pretty good grades on everything else,” Hannity said on his Tuesday afternoon radio program, citing a far right conspiracy blog as his source. In fact, a Quinnipiac poll found that more Americans now disapprove of Trump’s handling of the crisis — a major change from January — and both the RealClearPolitics and FiveThirtyEight polling averages show noticeable declines in Trump’s overall job approval in the past several weeks as the coronavirus has killed several dozen Americans.
“There’s an MIT guy I noticed on Twitter, and you know he’s saying pretty much the same thing,” Hannity continued, not mentioning the name of his source, Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, who has promoted QAnon conspiracy theories in the past. “He does research nearly every single day on immune systems. He said quote ‘coronavirus fear-mongering by the Deep State will go down in history as one of the biggest frauds to manipulate economies, suppress dissent, and push mandated medicines.'”
“May be true,” Hannity concluded, tiptoeing right up to, but not officially endorsing the conspiracy theory.
Listen to the audio above, via Premiere Radio Networks.
