The stories you want. The opinions that matter.
No, thanks
Tag: sean hannity
Hannity Goes Quiet On Iran War As Trump's 'Massive Attack' Evaporates

Hannity Goes Quiet On Iran War As Trump's 'Massive Attack' Evaporates

Fox News host Sean Hannity all but stopped talking about Iran on his primetime show in recent weeks, after President Donald Trump called off further escalations in his six-month-long war. It’s a remarkable shift for Hannity, who is the network figure closest to the president and whose repeated calls for U.S. military action against Iran apparently helped sway Trump’s final decision to launch hostilities in February.

Hannity declared at the top of his July 23 broadcast that the “gloves” were “about to come off” and the U.S. would soon be “launching a massive attack on Iran,” citing comments Trump made to Axios that day.

“We're talking about bridges, power plants, airports, roadways, checkpoints, Kharg Island, the nuclear site at Pickaxe Mountain, everything now on the table,” Hannity exclaimed. Introducing correspondent Kevin Corke for a report, the host commended: “Kevin, remember the scene in Gladiator? ‘At my command, unleash hell.’ That's what it sounds like to me.”

"Before Epic Fury, I was warning Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, because there were reports that a jet, probably with a lot of money on it, [was] waiting to take him to Vladimir Putin's Russia,” he later added. “I would advise the heads of the IRGC similarly, maybe they want to get on a jet themselves and do it pretty quickly. Just a guess. What do I know? I'm just a little old talk show host. I'm, you know, just guessing.”

“Good guess,” Corke replied.

It was not a good guess: Two days later, Trump reportedly “set aside” the escalation plans due to fears about diminished U.S. munitions stockpiles and the potential for a widening war.

Hannity’s war is such a debacle he’s stopped talking about it

Hannity’s only extensive discussion of the Iran war on his Fox show since that July 23 broadcast came during an interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he aired on July 28, according to a review of the Nexis database. Since then, he’s offered nothing more than a few stray comments.

There’s been plenty of news about the Iran war for Hannity to discuss since then — it just all makes him look bad.

The following week, Trump again threatened a massive attack before again backing down on August 1, this time publicly citing concerns from Persian Gulf states and claiming to have the “perimeters of a deal” with Iran that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

But no deal has since materialized, and while Trump and Iranian leaders trade public demands for war reparations, Iranian and Omani negotiators are closing in on an agreement that would impose transit fees for passage through the strait, leading the Gulf states to reportedly conclude “that Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz will become permanent, disrupting their oil and gas exports and global energy supplies indefinitely” — and that further escalations to the war would be worse.

Meanwhile, experts reportedly fear China or Russia could seek to take advantage of the depletion of U.S. missile supplies caused by the war.

Amidst this omnishambles for U.S. strategic interests, Hannity has been all but silent about the war he encouraged Trump to launch.

One explanation for Hannity’s reticence to defend Trump’s war could be that he is beginning to fear its potential blowback for the GOP’s midterm hopes. GOP strategist Matt Towery warned that the war is creating a headwind for the party in a Monday interview on Hannity’s radio show (where the host has discussed the war somewhat more frequently than he has on Fox).

“This thing has got to conclude because every week we go by that the president says well, we're going to bomb the hell out of them and destroy them, and then two weeks — two days later, we hear well, we're in talks, and then the Iranians pulled the rug out from under him — it weakens the president in the eyes of his supporters,” Towery told Hannity’s radio listeners on Monday. “And so it's time to put up or go home, in my opinion. That's just my advice.”

“The president … has to be able to put Iran aside and say, ‘look, we dealt with it’ one way or another,” Towery later added. “If we go into these midterms with Iran still hanging over everybody's head, I don't think — there'd be a lot of states that would be lost and unnecessarily so because the president's record has been obscured by all this.”

It’s also possible that the situation has become so bleak, and the president’s leadership so shaky, that even Hannity is having trouble defending it. After all, Hannity sold the war to his viewers — and to Trump — on the grounds that it would be a quick and easy response to an existential threat, with no regard for the likelihood that Iran would respond by closing the Strait of Hormuz.

It might also be awkward for Hannity to explain to his audience why the war seems no closer to being finished in August than it did when he told his radio audience on March 30, “It's going to be on the verge of wrapping up no later than three weeks from today is my prediction.”

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters

How Fox News Is Trying To Cover Up Max Miller's Domestic Abuse Scandal

How Fox News Is Trying To Cover Up Max Miller's Domestic Abuse Scandal

Fox News is keeping its viewers in the dark about the gruesome allegations that Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) physically and emotionally abused his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, and his 2-year-old daughter. Since late July, when the story began receiving national attention, Fox has given it only 6 minutes of airtime — and none at all in primetime.

The New York Times — following a story from Mother Jones about Miller’s custody dispute and alleged history of violent behavior — published an article on what it termed the “sordid, years-long family drama” on July 28. The paper detailed a flurry of accusations against Miller from court filings across multiple lawsuits and countersuits, all of which Miller, a former Trump aide, denies:

Ms. Moreno, the daughter of Senator Bernie Moreno, also an Ohio Republican, has said that Mr. Miller scalded her chest and stomach by throwing hot water from a skillet at her body; held a gun to her head; pushed her against a wall and hit her head; and fractured their daughter’s collarbone and bruised her shoulder.
According to court documents, their daughter at one point told Ms. Moreno, “Daddy kill you.”

Since then, Sen. Moreno has publicly declared his son-in-law unfit for office; Ohio’s other Republican senator, Jon Husted, has called on Miller to resign; questions from reporters have forced Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), and Trump himself to weigh in; the president has reportedly raised concerns with the congressman about his reelection campaign; and the deadline has passed to replace him on the November ballot.

While Fox responded to the scandal with a mere six minutes of coverage, its right-wing competitors at Newsmax provided one hour and 43 minutes of airtime, according to a Media Matters review.

The bulk of Fox’s coverage of the Miller saga came from two correspondent reports on Fox’s “news” flagship Special Report and four headline reports (three of which ran on weekends). The scandal has been mentioned just once by one of the network’s “opinion” stars, during a July 31 exchange on the panel show The Five.

At the end of a lengthy segment about purportedly radical Democratic candidates, Jessica Tarlov, the program’s Democratic co-host, asked whether Miller, “who has been accused of abusing his wife and his daughter” should be “thrown out” of the GOP. Greg Gutfeld replied, “Sure,” before admitting he was unaware “what you're talking about” and pointing out that the story wasn’t “in the A-block.”

The story wasn’t in The Five’s A-block — or indeed, any block — in the days since. Nor has Miller’s saga and the GOP’s response to it drawn attention from the Fox star vehicles hosted by Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Jesse Watters, or the hosts of its high-profile morning show, Fox & Friends. And across the “news” and “opinion” sides, no Republican politician interviewed on Fox has had to field the sort of uncomfortable questions about Miller they’ve faced on other networks.

While scandal-plagued Republicans seeking an opportunity to do damage control have for years made a beeline to Fox’s greenrooms, Miller has instead sought to deny and defuse the allegations through interviews on CNN and Newsmax, which have significantly lower ratings (and in CNN’s case is despised by the president and his base).

Did every single Fox “opinion” host independently decide not to throw Miller a lifeline? Did they and the bulk of their “news side” colleagues all determine that there was no value in informing their viewers about the allegations against him, even as the GOP became embroiled in the scandal?

Fox’s non-coverage of the Miller scandal is reminiscent of how the network left then-Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) for dead back in 2021, following a Times report that Gaetz was under federal investigation for alleged sex trafficking.

For his part, Gaetz — who routinely feuded with Miller when they were both in the House, left office under a cloud of scandal in 2024, and is now a host at the far-right One America News — has used his own show to decry Miller’s “sad train wreck.”

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters

How Often Did MAGA Media Proclaim 'Mission Accomplished' In Iran? Too Often

How Often Did MAGA Media Proclaim 'Mission Accomplished' In Iran? Too Often

Within days of President Donald Trump’s unprovoked attack on Iran in late February, right-wing media figures began predicting a short, easy conflict that would be over quickly. Major conservative pundits unilaterally declared in early March that the war was a “wrap-up mission at this point,” a “done deal,” and “winding down.” Instead, the war is about to enter its sixth month with no clear end in sight, with the potential for escalation seemingly everywhere.

Where right-wing media promised a cakewalk, the Trump administration has delivered a quagmire, as recent developments make clear. The U.S. military resumed striking targets in Iran in the middle of July, following the breakdown of a largely illusory ceasefire. Iranian authorities told The Associated Press that the recent wave of strikes have killed 50 and injured over 500. Over the weekend, the Pentagon announced the deaths of three U.S. service members, and The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration is now on the verge of “all-out war with Iran after more troops are killed.” And according to The New York Times, the Defense Department has been withholding the full number of U.S. troops who have been wounded in the conflict.

CNBC reported that a maritime risk firm characterized the current state of the Strait of Hormuz as a “worst-case scenario,” with the key waterway nominally open but still a primary point of conflict between the two countries.

These grim assessments stand in stark contrast to the predictions Iran hawks made in the days after the U.S. and Israeli militaries began their joint campaign on February 28 — the pundits listed below may as well have unfurled a “Mission Accomplished” banner for all of their premature declarations of victory.

In early March, right-wing media figures predicted imminent end to Iran war

Although some in right-wing media expressed early skepticism of the war, there was no shortage of hacks (and hawks) who got on board immediately.

On March 3, Fox News’ Laura Ingraham set a tone that others would soon match. “We've already knocked out so much of their capability,” Ingraham said. “It looks like this is just a wrap-up mission at this point.”

Two days later, her colleague Greg Gutfeld speculated on The Five that “maybe there's just nobody who can declare surrender because they're dead. I don't know, but I don't see how this thing can continue much longer.”

The Five returned to the topic the next day. “Do not lie about the war,” host Jesse Watters shouted at his liberal colleague Jessica Tarlov. “You know the war is going well.”

Fox News contributor Tyrus Murdoch added: “I’m willing to say this is a done deal.”

Some prime-time hosts at right-wing network Newsmax took the same line.

“I think we're at the end of serious U.S. involvement in Iran,” said host Rob Finnerty on March 9.

The same night on the same network, Greg Kelly said, “This time next week, we may be able to declare victory and warn Iran, don't do it again. But it could be over.” Kelly’s comments were illustrated by a graphic that read “I Predict: War Over Soon.”

Finnerty doubled down the next night. “The war in Iran appears to be winding down,” he said. “I think it is.”

Also on March 10, Fox News’ Sean Hannity weighed in during his Premiere Radio Networks radio show. “I am a firm believer that this is going to end very quickly,” Hannity said.

As the month drew to a close, Hannity again saw the conflict’s end in sight, telling his radio audience, “It's going to be on the verge of wrapping up no later than three weeks from today is my prediction.”

That was on March 30.

Conservative pundits claimed in March that Trump had won the war

Sometimes right-wing talking heads went even further, not just claiming that the war would end soon but declaring that Trump was already the victor.

On March 5, Ingraham stated flatly: “Trump has already won in Iran.”

In response to a press briefing by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on March 13, Heritage Foundation senior counselor James Carafano said, “The reality is the U.S. has already won this war, period. Mic drop. End of statement.”

Although Kelly’s “War Over Soon” prediction hadn’t come to pass, on March 16 the Newsmax host tried to speak that reality into existence. “I think we kind of just won the war,” Kelly said, adding: “I think we got this.”

Carafano echoed Kelly on March 23, arguing that “it does make sense for the U.S. to say, ‘Hey let's wind this down.’ Look, from America's perspective, dude, we’ve already won."

It’s now been at least three and a half months since these pundits made their various rosy predictions. Contrary to their Pollyannish analysis, the war appears to be expanding, as Iran continues to bomb U.S. military bases in the region and the Houthi militants in Yemen impose a blockade on Saudi Arabia to mirror Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

In light of these developments, a recent Fox News guest offered a different timeline, drawing inspiration from operations the U.S. military conducted after the 1991 Gulf War.

“I do expect that we're going to be there a long time,” said Robert Spalding, a retired Air Force general. “You know Operation Northern and Southern Watch went on for, you know, almost 20 years, I think.”

“I think this is going to be something similar,” Spalding continued. “We're going to have to stay there.”

Research contributions from Helena Hind, Isabella Corrao & Jane Lee

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters

Facing Iran Fiasco, MAGA Media Figures Choose Propaganda Over Independence

Facing Iran Fiasco, MAGA Media Figures Choose Propaganda Over Independence

The right-wing media’s debate over the reported memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran provides a test of whether, ten years after President Donald Trump first took power, his supporters are still capable of independent thought. Some of the biggest names in MAGA propaganda are failing it.

The framework agreement Trump and Vice President JD Vance reportedly signed virtually on Sunday appears to leave the U.S. in a worse geostrategic position than before they launched the war with Iran in February — but the full terms of the U.S. surrender are unclear because the actual text of the memorandum has yet to be released. Trump said Monday that the American people won’t be able to see the “very powerful document” that he’s already signed on their behalf until “sometime after Friday,” when a formal signing event is scheduled. Vance, meanwhile, has been on a media tour purporting to describe in detail the contents of the agreement that he signed, which he claims is “about a page and a half” long and a “very general” document.

If you have two functioning neurons to rub together, this seems very suspicious. Why is Vance going on Fox News host Sean Hannity’s show to talk up the MOU — while complaining that the U.S. press is adopting “talking points and propaganda” from the Iranian regime “that has no support in the text of the agreement that we've actually negotiated” — rather than simply putting out the document so the public can see it? Are the terms supposed to be so good for the U.S. that we’re worried about embarrassing Iran?

The lack of disclosure is raising concerns among some of MAGA’s hawks, who supported launching the war and prefer to see further escalation rather than an agreement that ends the conflict.

“I have asked for days, why can’t we, the people, see the damn MOU?” Fox host Mark Levin posted to social media on Sunday night. “Not through people briefed by an anonymous person. Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like this. If it is a great outcome for peace, then release it.”

“Alright, so, we still don’t have much information at this point,” Ben Shapiro complained Monday at the beginning of his podcast on the reported agreement. “No text to the MOU. Could have been released — I mean, it’s been signed. We know that because that’s been announced by the administration.”

“We still have a lot of questions,” Shapiro continued. “So here’s the thing: Just release it, then we can talk about things we know. Because that’s the really cool thing about written agreements. They’re filled with words, and those words, we can all read them and they mean things, and then we can understand what they mean, and then we can discuss them publicly. Either that or we don’t have any choice but to speculate.”

And Substacker Erick Erickson noted on Tuesday that “the administration has been conspicuously slow to publish” the text of the agreement, adding: “When a deal is good, you release the text. When you guard it, you are managing a story rather than reporting a victory.”

But plenty of big MAGA players are willing to help the administration manage the story by shilling for the MOU without showing much interest in why Trump won’t just release the text of the agreement they are cheering for.

Hannity interviewed Vance Monday night and had the vice president walk him through the purported ins and outs of the unreleased agreement. The host did raise the issue of the document text, though he presented it as an opportunity for Vance to rebut a critical talking point rather than an actual issue.

“A lot of people are questioning why not release the memorandum of understanding,” Hannity said. “You said it will happen this week.”

But when Vance responded by citing vague “sequencing” concerns and saying that Trump wants to keep it secret until the Friday signing, Hannity swallowed that without further comment.

“Trust in Trump” was MAGA shill Benny Johnson’s take on Sunday, acknowledging that he didn’t know the details of the agreement but nonetheless celebrating it as “historic,” “the deal that we all wanted,” an Iranian “surrender” and a “massive W” for the president.

And Fox host Jesse Watters, a similarly credulous buffoon, seemed to reel off the administration’s talking points while scoffing at the “fake news” and “Iranian spin.”

“The details of the deal, they'll be released after Friday. Everybody will be able to read it,” he said, apparently incurious about why the text wouldn’t be available sooner.

Trump has spent years culling his propagandists through scandal, corruption, crimes, and insurrection. What remains at the highest levels of right-wing media are the purest hacks.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters

Shop our Store

Constitution Cork Coaster

Constitution Cork Coaster

Democracy Mug

Democracy Mug

Make America Think Again Hat

Make America Think Again Hat

Constitution Rocks Glass

Constitution Rocks Glass

Headlines

Average Gas Prices Were Slightly Higher Under Biden, But Trump Is Closing In Fast!

Average Gas Prices Were Slightly Higher Under Biden, But Trump Is Closing In Fast!

Anthony Salisbury

Inside Trump's Chaotic And Failed Attempt To Prosecute Noncitizen Voters

Dr. Jonathan Reiner

White House Enraged After Top Cardiologist Raises Concerns About Trump's Condition

Hoekstra and Trump

70,000 Canadians File Petition To Oust Meddling US Ambassador  Over Provocations

Editor's Blog

His Name Is Kennedy But His Character Is Trump -- And He Sells Us Out Every Day

Are Kennedy, Musk And Trump To Blame For America's 'Exploding Diarrhea'?

Stupid On Steroids: Trump, Testosterone, And The Iran Disaster

American Amnesia: Why Did We Ever Listen to Lindsey Graham?

Trending

White House Enraged After Top Cardiologist Raises Concerns About Trump's Condition

Which Dictator Does Trump Most Resemble? (Hint: He Was A Communist)

Left To Perish On Trump's Death Plane, Leavitt Gives Notice As Press Secretary

World

Trump's Most Humiliating Lie In Election Speech Wasn't About U.S. Elections

In Mideast, Dropping Diplomacy For Bloodshed Is Bad Policy And Stupid Politics

Trump Opens NATO Summit By Renewing Demand To Annex Greenland

Chinese Investor With Military Links Secretly Acquired SpaceX IPO Stake

Congratulations To All? Trump's Latest Deal Looks Like A Massive Gift To Iran

Trump's Failure To Protect The World From A Nuclear Iran Began Eight Years Ago