Trump Encouraged Hannity to Go After NYT, Per New Report; Hannity Calls It ‘Complete Lie’

Josh FeldmanApr 29th, 2020, 5:55 pm
 

There have been a few reports over the course of Donald Trump’s presidency about his relationship with members of the media, particularly with allies like Sean Hannity.

And now the Daily Beast is reporting that the president spoke with Hannity and “quietly encouraged” him in going after the New York Times.

Hannity recently sent the Times a letter demanding a retraction and apology over recent coverage of his coronavirus commentary that threatened legal action.

The Times’ official response to Hannity readsread, “The columns are accurate, do not reasonably imply what you and Mr. Hannity allege they do, and constitute protected opinion. In response to your request for an apology and retraction, our answer is ‘no.'”

Per the Daily Beast, Trump spoke with Hannity before his lawyer sent the letter:

According to two people familiar with the matter, Trump had privately gossiped with Hannity—a prominent informal adviser to this president and one of Trump’s preferred late-night phone buddies—about the Fox host’s desire to make an example of the Times. Though President Trump thought it was a good idea for Hannity to explore legal action against the news outlet, one of the two sources stressed that it “wasn’t the president’s idea” for Hannity and his attorney to shoot off a threatening letter to the Times. Trump did not order or direct Hannity to do so, this source said.

A third person with knowledge of the situation said that for the past month the president had repeatedly complained to advisers that he and other Trumpworld figures should consider lawsuits for all the “lies” news outlets have supposedly told about them during the coronavirus crisis. This source said they were aware of an instance when Trump directly conveyed the sentiment to Hannity and at least one other conservative media personality.

Hannity responded to the Beast saying, “Fake news… I never spoke with the President nor consulted with him about my attorney’s letter to the New York Times or who I should hire. And as previously stated, Michael Cohen was never my attorney.”

After the report went up Wednesday afternoon, Hannity tweeted, “Headline is a total and complete lie. Fake news strikes again!!”

Daily Beast reporter Asawin Suebsaeng tweeted in response to Hannity, “You sent a statement, as we included, refusing to confirm or deny what we *actually* reported. We followed up repeatedly to get u to address what we’re reporting. You didn’t.”

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Josh Feldman - Senior Editor

Josh Feldman is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Email him here: josh@mediaite.com Follow him on Twitter: @feldmaniac