To many in the leftist press, facts don’t matter as much as perception. So long as they perceive President Trump to be the cause of all the world’s problems, any lie can be spouted as truth. Sean Hannity alongside The Hill’s Joe Concha and America First Action Senior Advisor Sean Spicer slammed the utter absurdity of the media’s attempt to connect President Trump to the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton.
Hannity spoke with fury on the tireless efforts of the media to tie President Trump to any issue under the sun:
…Turns out we have both sides of the political spectrum. It is not something that should be politicized at all. I don't blame Bernie Sanders for what happened to Steve Scalise… The media, the Democrats will use any and every opportunity to bludgeon President Trump. If he cured cancer, they would find a way to spin it into he's a horrible person.
Unbeknownst to cable news outlets, the American populace is not naïve to the depraved tactics employed by the left- wing media. Concha noted:
And blaming Trump in this situation as you mentioned, blaming the President, Sean. It's very predictable and I think the American people are onto it. However, Morning Consult poll taken bout two years into the presidency found that 64% of voters polled say the media has done more to divide the country. 17%, less than one in five, say the media actually has united the country more. So the perception is there that yes, this is exactly what is going to happen in these situations and the bias of omission here, Sean, is incredible. The fact that the El Paso shooter and his background was analyzed ten times more than the Dayton shooter…
Spicer applauded the President for his dignified speech in the chaos that ensued after the shootings over the past weekend; “The President today was pitch perfect. Everybody's been out there on the media and on the left criticizing the President. Today he stood before America, talked about how we should all support these communities, sympathize with these families, pray for them, but also he offered solutions.”
Hannity then took the press to task for failing to report on gun violence in Democrat-run cities like Chicago and Baltimore:
This is our American family but you know what, look at the silence in Chicago by the media mob. Look at the silence in Baltimore. Look at the silence in L.A. Look at the silence one mile from Nancy Pelosi's home. I think we're the only people that covered it. I remember making the decision, Joe Concha, to scroll the names of people we never heard from shot, murdered, killed in Chicago. Nobody ever heard of this. Why? Why is there that Democratic rule for decades? Poverty.
Concha affirmed the bias by omission (click “expand”):
Let me see if you on cable news -- on any news -- over the last 24 hours heard about this. A Chicago hospital, Mount Sinai, had to stop accepting patients to its trauma center because they were overwhelmed with patients of people that were shot. You mentioned the number before, 52 shot in Chicago this past weekend. Nobody speaks about that. And by the way, mass shootings have been going on in this country for a long time now. Columbine happened under President Clinton, Virginia Tech happened under George W. Bush, Newtown happened under President Obama. Those President's weren't blames. President Trump shouldn't be blamed here, either. And the fact that we're doing that, that's what divides the country, Sean.
The media should look in a mirror before they condemn President Trump for spreading divisiveness and hatred.
Transcript below:
FNC's Hannity
August 6, 2019
9:27 p.m. EasternSEAN HANNITY: The Democrats, mainstream hate-Trump media once again using the horrific tragedies, this time in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio to attack President Trump and all Republicans, saying they are to blame for the mass shootings over the weekend. Shocking, predictable, pathetic, and sad. Watch.
CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN (D-OH): He didn’t talk anything about the gun reform. He didn’t talk anything about the two bills that are sitting at the steps of machine gun Mitch McConnell. Where the background check and closing the Charleston loophole are sitting at the Senate. And it’s time for Mitch McConnell to get off his rear end and do something. What I was looking for today, Andrea, was for that radicalizer in chief to come out and say I personally rebuke and reject the ideology of hate.
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): But what he has got to understand, is when you have language that is racist, that is anti- immigrant there are mentally unstable people in this country who see that as a sign to do terrible, terrible things.
HANNITY: Joining us now with reaction, The Hill's Joe Concha, America First Action Senior Advisor and former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. I counted literally minutes and I didn't know what the motivation would have been in El Paso, Joe, I didn't know what it would be in Dayton. Turns out we have both sides of the political spectrum. It is not something that should be politicized at all. I don't blame Bernie Sanders for what happened to Steve Scalise. Steve Scalise doesn't blame Bernie Sanders. I don't blame Elizabeth Warren for Dayton. I don't blame President Trump for El Paso. Now, if we use this logic of the left, every single illegal immigrant that kills an American, everyone that dies from drugs that cross that border, every single sexual assault, violent assault by an illegal immigrant against America, based on their logic we should blame them. I don't blame them. I can understand there might be some honest political differences or politicizing building the wall. But this is what is predictable. The media, the Democrats will use any and every opportunity to bludgeon President Trump. If he cured cancer, they would find a way to spin it into he's a horrible person.
JOE CONCHA: And blaming Trump in this situation as you mentioned, blaming the President, Sean. It's very predictable and I think the American people are onto it. However, Morning Consult poll taken bout two years into the presidency found that 64% of voters polled say the media has done more to divide the country. 17%, less than one in five, say the media actually has united the country more. So the perception is there that yes, this is exactly what is going to happen in these situations and the bias of omission here, Sean, is incredible. The fact that the El Paso shooter and his background was analyzed ten times more than the Dayton shooter-
HANNITY: No, no, no you’re wrong. A hundred thousand times. It was almost exclusively they ignored the Dayton shooter's political thought process which was very different than the guy in El Paso. Both evil, and you can't blame people for the evil actions of anybody. Sean Spicer
SEAN SPICER: Look, I think your analysis has been spot on, Sean. This has been too much focus on who is to blame. The reality is, suicide in this country is way up, especially among our veterans. Too many people are killing people through gun violence. The President today was pitch perfect. Everybody's been out there on the media and on the left criticizing the President. Today he stood before America, talked about how we should all support these communities, sympathize with these families, pray for them, but also he offered solutions. He talked about the red flag. There's too much going on with mental health in this country and the President today offered real solutions. How we can all come together. Whether it's video games or movies or TV shows or the media. Something is going wrong where people are realizing that either they need to kill themselves to find solace or they need to kill others. Both are completely wrong. And I think that this is one of those moments in America, where instead of figuring out who is to blame, we can figure out what to do. And for every critic of the President of the United States, today he stood before America and said let's come together, let's find those areas where we can find some common ground and solve this problem. And so I get that the left wants everything to do about guns. Those of us on the right are concerned about the culture, the violence on the media and in the video games and in movies. Let's find the common ground that the President put forward today, that Lindsey Graham talked about today. Come together and say to America, we get it. Let's stop figuring out who to blame because you're right Sean, we didn't blame Bernie Sanders after the congressional massacre. We've got to stop for a moment and say how do we move forward? How do we fix this? And for once, Republican, Democrat, conservative, independent, Never-Trumper, come together today and say the President was right. He called out hate and bigotry and offered a way forward. Let's all join in that for once, put politics aside and say this is the way to go.
HANNITY: Sean, listen. This is our American family but you know what, look at the silence in Chicago by the media mob. Look at the silence in Baltimore. Look at the silence in L.A. Look at the silence one mile from Nancy Pelosi's home. I think we're the only people that covered it. I remember making the decision, Joe Concha, to scroll the names of people we never heard from shot, murdered, killed in Chicago. Nobody ever heard of this. Why? Why is there that Democratic rule for decades? Poverty. The only thing I don't like about that video is I used to be skinny then. Go ahead.
CONCHA: Let me see if you on cable news -- on any news -- over the last 24 hours heard about this. A Chicago hospital, Mount Sinai, had to stop accepting patients to its trauma center because they were overwhelmed with patients of people that were shot. You mentioned the number before, 52 shot in Chicago this past weekend. Nobody speaks about that. And by the way, mass shootings have been going on in this country for a long time now. Columbine happened under President Clinton, Virginia Tech happened under George W. Bush, Newtown happened under President Obama. Those President's weren't blames. President Trump shouldn't be blamed here, either. And the fact that we're doing that, that's what divides the country, Sean.
SPICER: Sean, let's make this a policy fight about what you want but today let's come together as a country, agree with the President, that he was pitch perfect in calling out hate and offering a solution.
HANNITY: It's never going to happen.
SPICER: I know that but for once -- we keep leading on this -- one time let's just agree that the President did the right thing and let's all stand behind him and then fight about higher taxes and lower taxes and more regulations another day. Today, let's come together as a country.
HANNITY: Sean, I agree. It's never gonna sadly happen. The dog bites, the bee stings, you're feeling sad, blame Trump.
