Fox News personality Sean Hannity took aim at MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, calling her a "full-time left-wing, hate-Trump conspiracy theorist" for not airing former President Donald Trump's victory speech after the Iowa caucus.
The criticism was sparked by Maddow's explanation for MSNBC's decision not to air Donald Trump's Iowa caucus victory speech live. Maddow said news organizations bear a "cost" in providing an “unfiltered” platform for Trump and his penchant for “knowingly broadcasting untrue things.”
Indeed, a Washington Post investigation investigation concluded that Trump made over 30,000 false or misleading claims during his time in office, not that this stopped Hannity from attacking Maddow anyway.
You can hear what Hannity said in the video below.
Hannity dedicated a significant portion of his broadcast to criticizing Maddow after playing a snippet of Trump's speech:
“As you just heard during his victory speech, Donald Trump struck what was a unifying tone. But apparently, according to part-time make-believe journalist and full-time left-wing, hate-Trump conspiracy theorists like radical Rachel Maddow, Trump’s speech was too dangerous for the fragile ears of NBC’s loyal viewers."
"They didn’t take any of the speech live. Instead, no, Miss Maddow was lecturing Americans about truth and integrity.”
Hannity countered by questioning Maddow's self-awareness, alleging that she had peddled more lies and conspiracy theories than anyone else in the media:
“This is a joke, right? Serious question: Does Maddow not have any self-awareness at all? No one in the media mob has peddled more lies, more conspiracy theories than Rachel Maddow."
"Every night for about five solid years, and it still goes on to this day, Maddow proudly donned that tinfoil hat and spread some of the most insane, craziest conspiracy theories that we’ve ever heard.”
Hannity went on to claim that Maddow "denied the legitimacy of the 2016 election" by reporting on the investigations into Russia's interference during the 2016 election and asserting that "Trump was a Russian agent."
But Hannity didn't limit his critique to Maddow alone; he also took a swipe at CNN's Jake Tapper, accusing him of being a "political hack" and a "Democratic operative" for interrupting Trump's speech to highlight what he deemed as "anti-immigrant rhetoric." Hannity accused Tapper of living a lie and harboring "supreme hatred for all things Donald Trump."
Despite Hannity's fervent denunciation of Maddow and Tapper, critics have pointed out potential hypocrisy in light of Fox News' role in promoting Trump's baseless claims about the 2020 election.
Last year, the network settled a lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million over false accusations of election rigging and continues to face a multibillion-dollar claim from Smartmatic for similar reasons.
Hannity was swiftly called out.
Others pointed out that Maddow has more credibility than Hannity because Hannity never graduated from college—while Maddow has earned degrees from both Stanford and Oxford.
Last year, Fox News paid hundreds of millions to settle a lawsuit brought by Dominion for disseminating false allegations that Dominion "rigged" its own machines to subvert the 2020 election result.
Hannity often repeated these lies on his program—as did figures like former host Tucker Carlson—but the right-wing outlet defended its coverage despite the legal challenges.
Fox News alleged the statements Dominion challenged in its lawsuit "are not actionable defamation because Fox News’ coverage and commentary are not only not defamatory, but also protected by the First Amendment and New York doctrines emanating from it.”
Though Hannity did get caught in the crossfire, Carlson was perhaps Fox News' biggest conspiratorial mouthpiece. Text messages he'd sent to other Fox personalities—which featured heavily in Dominion's lawsuit—showed he was acutely aware of the damage he was doing but continued to lie anyway.
