Democrats launched the impeachment inquiry following a whistleblower’s report suggesting that Trump withheld U.S. military aid from Ukraine to pressure the country into investigating his political rival, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
A president can be impeached if his or her acts are inconsistent with their presidential duties, whether or not it violates criminal law. It is the job of the House to decide whether there’s enough evidence to show that Trump committed an impeachable offense. First, articles of impeachment would have to pass the full U.S. House of Representatives with a simple majority. Those articles would then be sent to the Senate for a trial. A two-thirds Senate vote is required to convict — that is, remove — the president (Kertscher 1).
The public hearings over the next few weeks will focus on allegations that the president used U.S. foreign policy for personal gain. The impeachment inquiry centers largely on a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as the Trump administration was holding up nearly $400 million in aid that Congress had approved.
Commentators on MSNBC have signaled in the days leading up to the hearing that they will focus on the testimony of diplomats and security officials who have already given sworn statements, including that Trump backers such as his personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani pursued a “shadow” foreign policy.
Fox News commentators seem determined to broaden the inquiry — putting on trial everyone from Biden and his son, Hunter, to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), to the anonymous whistleblower who raised an alarm about the Trump-Zelensky call and whom Trump has suggested is guilty of “treason.”
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Trump confidant Sean Hannity gave over the end of one show last week to a clip from radio host Rush Limbaugh, who proclaimed: “They are trying to overturn a duly constituted, legal election. This is a direct assault on the Constitution. It’s a direct assault on the American voter. … And they’re going to try to destroy the people you vote for, as a means of destroying you and dispiriting you.”
[According to Fox] Multiple guests suggest that witnesses never heard directly from Trump that he wanted to hold U.S. aid to Ukraine to get dirt on his political opponents.
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Fox hosts have savaged Democrats for withholding the name [of the whistleblower], while also suggesting they knew the identity, without revealing it. “It’s scurrilous. It’s cowardly and it’s not the way it’s supposed to work,” Trump’s onetime acting Atty. Gen. Matt Whitaker told Hannity. “A person in America does have the right to face their accusers, the last I read,” said a seemingly incredulous Hannity.
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[Fox News:] Multiple guests have said complaints against Trump all amount to disagreements with his foreign policy and that Trump only wanted to root out corruption. [Radio host Mark] Levin told Hannity: “If he wants to treat Ukraine in a certain way, he is free to do it” (Rainey 2-6).
Within the bubble of the Fox News White House, the hunt for Biden family corruption was a fully coherent agenda, one that had the secretary of state, attorney general, and president’s lawyer traipsing around the globe to hunt down clues. But outside that bubble, it’s a very different story. Instead of a tale of the US president bravely facing down corruption, it looks like — because it is — a story of a US president enlisting foreign countries to kneecap his domestic political rivals.
That’s a reflection of the unusual relationship that Fox has with Trump: They might be his propaganda network, but he’s their most enthusiastic, credulous, and powerful viewer. They’re both, together, trapped in a world of their own making, and surprised when the rest of the country doesn’t see what they’ve convinced themselves of (Hemmer 5).
… Sean Hannity … supplied talking points for any other Republicans accused of a cover-up. Accompanied by graphics that said things like "DEMS VS. THE CONSTITUTION," Hannity said the articles of impeachment "are an affront to our entire constitutional system."
When he wasn't quoting Trump's lawyers word-for-word, Hannity was mirroring their arguments.
Notably, parts of his monologue were directed at members of the GOP. He mocked Republicans who dare take the charges seriously.
"No Republican senator — listen, voters out there, you elect these people — should give this one iota of legitimacy," he said.
Several GOP senators, like Mitt Romney of Utah, have done that. Hannity — who is known to be very close to Trump — seemed to be telling wayward senators to get in single-file line behind the president.
Hannity then addressed GOP voters: "It is not your Republican senators' job to bolster what are pathetically weak articles of impeachment from the House. It is not your senators' duty to call witnesses that the House didn't even subpoena. It is not your representative's responsibility to investigative evidence the House neglected to examine. There are no do-overs. The Senate doesn't get to take on the constitutional role of the House. Senators review the articles of impeachment — that's it — as delivered by the House."
Hannity's message was crystal clear: New witnesses shouldn't be allowed. New evidence shouldn't be introduced. He was saying, in essence, let's all allow Trump to get back to work.
"288 days" until the election, he commented, "but who's counting? (Stelter 2)?
Tuesday night, Nov. 19, 2019, 9 p.m.
… Sean Hannity opened his show by calling the hearings a “huge dud” and an “embarrassing spectacle.” A variety of headlines scrolled below him, calling the hearings a “witch trial” and a “sham.”
Lawmakers are holding hearings to figure out if Trump abused his power by pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his political rivals in a July call. But Hannity defended the president by citing the rough transcript, saying that Trump never said that he would restrict foreign aid. While it is not explicitly mentioned in the rough transcript, the Washington Post reported Trump ordered a hold on military aid to Ukraine days before the call.
Hannity rejected the witness’ testimony and insisted the only witness the American people need to hear from is the whistleblower.
“Not one witness was necessary, not a single one,” Hannity said. “There was no quid, no pro, no quo, no pressure, no extortion.”
As the show continued, Hannity said Americans don’t care about the impeachment hearings because fewer people have been watching the hearings on TV than those who tuned into former President Richard Nixon’s impeachment proceedings 45 years ago. ...
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Hannity added the first hearings failed to change public opinion of the inquiry, citing a Mroning Consult poll indicating support for the inquiry has decreased. (In contrast, a FiveThirtyEight poll released Tuesday suggests most Americans think Trump committed an impeachable offense.)
The guests on his program included Rep. Jim Jordan, who questioned each of the witnesses at the hearings, and the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. (Casey 1).
Sean Hannity did not hold back Wednesday night, blasting the Senate impeachment trial and impeachment manage Adam Schiff, D-Calif., describing his performance as "never-ending, nonstop feigned moral outrage" by a "lunatic."
"He looked like a lunatic who's lost his mind. Babbling, repeating over and over and over and over again incoherently," Hannity said on his television program.
The host didn't stop there, playing a montage and time-lapse of Schiff reiterating his dislike of the performance.
"He's monotonous, repetitive, boring. For three long, horrific hours he waged the single most crooked, lying, dishonest smear campaign, the likes of which, even for Washington, took my breath away," Hannity said. "He is a national disgrace, a stain on the Democratic Party, a walking, talking, lying con man, a perfect representation of everything that is wrong in the D.C. swamp."
"Every time this man -- for over three years -- has opened his mouth, he's lied," Hannity added.
Hannity then compared the impeachment push by Democrats to "election interference."
"If Democrats are really concerned with election interference... you look no further than in a mirror because the 'Schumer-Schiff sham show' is just their latest attempt to reclaim power at any cost," Hannity said. "They haven't done anything for you, we the people" (Garcia 1).
Fox News host Sean Hannity, who has repeatedly slammed House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) as a “congenital liar” and “lunatic,” ramped up his attacks on the lead House impeachment manager on Wednesday night, describing him as a “sociopath.” “By the way, think about all those Democrats that are asking you to trust them,” the Fox star exclaimed on his prime-time show. “Think about who is begging for witnesses. There he is. The compromised, in this particular case, corrupt, and we all know, the congenital liar by the name of Adam Schiff.”
“How could anyone in good conscience ever trust what is merely a pretty despicable sociopath?!” Hannity added. “His pants have been on fire for three consecutive years” (Baragona 1).
Works cited:
Baragona, Justin. “Hannity Calls Adam Schiff a ‘Pretty Despicable Sociopath’. Daily Beast, January 29, 2020. Net. https://www.thedailybeast.com/hannity-calls-adam-schiff-a-pretty-despicable-sociopath
Casey, Chris. “An Hour of TV Time with Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow.” The Wash, November 20, 2019. Net. http://thewash.org/2019/11/20/an-hour-with-sean-hannity-and-rachel-maddow/
Garcia, Victor. “Sean Hannity Goes Off on 'Lunatic' Adam Schiff.” Fox News, January 22, 2020. Net. https://www.foxnews.com/media/sean-hannity-unloads-on-lunatic-adam-schiff
Hemmer, Nicole. “The Difference between Nixon and Trump Is Fox News.” Vox, October 17, 2019. Net. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/10/7/20899169/geraldo-rivera-sean-hannity-fox-watergate-trump-nixon-conspiracy-theories
Kertscher, Tom. “Fox News Analyst Correct: Impeachment Inquiry Is Following Rules by Questioning Witnesses in Private.” Politifact, October 28, 2019. Net. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/oct/28/andrew-napolitano/fox-news-analyst-correct-impeachment-inquiry-follo/
Rainey, James. “The Impeachment Show on MSNBC and Fox News: Preparing To Prosecute, or Defend, Trump.” Los Angeles Times, November 13, 2019. Net. https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-11-13/msnbc-and-fox-news-girding-to-prosecute-and-defend-president-trump
Stelter, Brian. “Sean Hannity Says Republicans Shouldn't Give Impeachment Trial 'One Iota of Legitimacy'.” CNN, January 21, 2020. Net. https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/21/media/sean-hannity-carl-bernstein-reliable-sources/index.html
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