For two years, the liberal media have convinced themselves and their Democrat buddies that Russian collusion took place in the 2016 election. On Friday night’s Hannity, fill-in host Jason Chaffetz spoke with The Hill’s Joe Concha and Fox News contributor Charlie Hurt on the mass Russia hysteria fueled by the press.
To begin by pointing out the obvious, Chaffetz played a series of clips highlighting the disappointment of MSNBC and CNN anchors after former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s bust testimony last Wednesday. One snippet featured CNN's Jeffrey Toobin conceding: “If you look who’s winning now, it certainly seems like Donald Trump is winning.”
In reaction to the media meltdown over the collusion story collapsing in front of their eyes, Chaffetz opined to Concha:
I really think the media was A, disappointed and just so frustrated that they didn't get what they wanted. And when I saw Nadler and Pelosi do their press conferences, they were really playing to the media to try to say whoops, sorry we didn't produce what we said we were gonna produce.
Concha affirmed the sentiment:
Yeah, I think Bob Mueller was a victim of his own hype by the media, by Democrats. He's supposed to be the unflappable statesman with gravitas, a command of the facts. Instead as you saw Jason, he was confused, he didn't even know many of the contents in the report that he wrote. And as far as disappointment, you are right about that because this has been the fuel for the media over the last two and a half years. Let me give you some stats. 8,500 stories on the Russia Probe just by The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and MSNBC. 530,000 web articles on Russia, Trump, Mueller. 245 million interactions, including likes and comments, shares on social media giants such as Twitter and Facebook. So not only were people disappointed in the media because they wanted this to be the next Watergate, they also knew that this was very good for business. And now the business is going away because after what we saw on Wednesday, that is the final chapter as far as impeachment, Mueller and Russia, Jason.
Chaffetz then inquired to Hurt whether the press would recognize the error of their ways and apologize for misleading the American public for two years. Hurt made clear he was not holding his breath:
There won't be any number of apologies anywhere near the number of stories that Joe just listed out. It is astonishing because all of those stories were based on fundamental lies peddled by Democrats, remember Adam Schiff telling us again and again he had this evidence, there is evidence that the public doesn't know yet but they all knew. All of that turned out to be lies. And you know, when I got into the news business 20-25 years ago, I got into it because I believed in the truth and I believed in exposing people who were doing things that were wrong. There is something going on here where you have an alarming number of reporters in the national political media who have no interest whatsoever in exposing the truth. They are willing to take the direction of Democrats, they are so blinded by their hatred of Donald Trump, they will take -- they will take any bogus story hook, line and sinker and they will absolutely run with it to the ends of the Earth in order to destroy this President. And you know, even a few years ago, you know, places like The Washington Post and The New York Times, you know, you knew that they leaned left. But you also had enough respect for them that you knew they were usually telling the truth or doing their best to tell the truth. They have forsaken any pretense whatsoever that they give a damn about the truth at all.
Rather than be remorseful for the bogus narrative they have enabled for years on end, the press seem bent on continuing to hunt for anything that can take down Trump.
Transcript below:
Hannity
7/26/19
9:38:07
JASON CHAFFETZ: Welcome back to this special edition of Hannity, the left's day of reckoning. Robert Mueller's testimony on Wednesday was a disaster for the Democrats but it was also a crushing blow to the mainstream media who had been pushing the ridiculous Russia collusion narrative for years. Watch this:
(Clips of reaction from MSNBC and CNN)
DONNY DEUTSCH: We may not have won the battle of impeachment, but we are going to win the war of putting him in jail. Whatever we have to do and we are not gonna necessarily play fair.
NORAH O’ DONNELL: Mueller’s appearance on Capitol Hill yesterday was not quite what Democrats were hoping for and did not make impeachment any more likely.
WILLIE GEIST: It’s fair to say that Democrats did not have the day they wanted. That Bob Mueller was not the witness they were hoping for. There wasn’t some new evidence presented or some new context given that would perhaps convince the American public that this President had to be impeached.
JONATHAN LEMIRE: Where does this move the ball now on impeachment? Does it go anywhere? I think if you were a Democrat who was looking for today to be the moment that something crystalized. I think that Democrat is probably disappointed.
RACHEL MADDOW: Because of that performance from Mueller today, I think that lights a fire under the need to speak to the people on his team. Who actually did the work?
BRIAN WILLIAMS: A lot of Democrats in particular used the D word and branded this a disaster.
CHUCK TODD: On optics, this was a disaster.
JEFFERY TOOBIN: If you look who’s winning now, it certainly seems like Donald Trump is winning.
CHAFFETZ: Yeah, cause he is. Joining us now is Fox News contributor Charlie Hurt, media reporter for The Hill, Joe Concha, and Fox News contributor Doug Schoen. Gentleman thank you so much for joining us here. Joe, I want to start with you because you are an expert in looking at the media. I really think the media was A, disappointed and just so frustrated that they didn't get what they wanted. And when I saw Nadler and Pelosi do their press conferences, they were really playing to the media to try to say whoops, sorry we didn't produce what we said we were gonna produce.
JOE CONCHA: Yeah, I think Bob Mueller was a victim of his own hype by the media, by Democrats. He's supposed to be the unflappable statesman with gravitas, a command of the facts. Instead as you saw Jason, he was confused, he didn't even know many of the contents in the report that he wrote. And as far as disappointment, you are right about that because this has been the fuel for the media over the last two and a half years. Let me give you some stats. 8,500 stories on the Russia Probe just by The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and MSNBC. 530,000 web articles on Russia, Trump, Mueller. 245 million interactions, including likes and comments, shares on social media giants such as Twitter and Facebook. So not only were people disappointed in the media because they wanted this to be the next Watergate, they also knew that this was very good for business. And now the business is going away because after what we saw on Wednesday, that is the final chapter as far as impeachment, Mueller and Russia, Jason.
CHAFFETZ: Those are stunning statistics. I mean those numbers are unbelievable. Charlie, I would love to go back and take an analysis of all the Pulitzer Prizes that were won along the way and do an analysis. Do you think we're gonna get many apologies from the media along the way, Charlie?
CHARLIE HURT: There won't be any number of apologies anywhere near the number of stories that Joe just listed out. It is astonishing because all of those stories were based on fundamental lies peddled by Democrats, remember Adam Schiff telling us again and again he had this evidence, there is evidence that the public doesn't know yet but they all knew. All of that turned out to be lies. And you know, when I got into the news business 20-25 years ago, I got into it because I believed in the truth and I believed in exposing people who were doing things that were wrong. There is something going on here where you have an alarming number of reporters in the national political media who have no interest whatsoever in exposing the truth. They are willing to take the direction of Democrats, they are so blinded by their hatred of Donald Trump, they will take -- they will take any bogus story hook, line and sinker and they will absolutely run with it to the ends of the Earth in order to destroy this President. And you know, even a few years ago, you know, places like The Washington Post and The New York Times, you know, you knew that they leaned left. But you also had enough respect for them that you knew they were usually telling the truth or doing their best to tell the truth. They have forsaken any pretense whatsoever that they give a damn about the truth at all.
