Media Matters has launched a new dishonest attack on Fox News’ Sean Hannity and now journalists and liberal activists are calling for the host to go to prison.
Hannity sarcastically said on Wednesday night that Mueller targets should bash their phones and delete their emails like Hillary Clinton did during the investigation into her emails.
WATCH:
“They are demanding that witnesses turn in their phones,” Hannity said. “If I advised them to follow Hillary Clinton’s lead — delete all your emails, and then acid wash the emails and hard drives on the phones, then take your phones and bash them with a hammer into little itsy bitsy pieces, use bleach bit, remove the sim cards, and then take the pieces and hand it over to Robert Mueller.”
“How do you think that would work out for everybody?” Hannity said. “I’m sure the result would not be the same as Hillary’s.”
Hannity was clearly trying to point out a double standard, but a Media Matters flack tweeted out an edited version of the video and implied Hannity was instructing witnesses to destroy evidence. The video cut off Hannity’s final remarks making it clear that the “result would not be the same as Hillary’s.”
Hey remember when Assange DM’d Hannity asking him to reach out on an encrypted app?
Tonight Hannity is freaking out about Mueller searching encrypted apps and “advised” all Mueller witnesses to “bash” their phones “into itsy bitsy pieces” pic.twitter.com/cZhaUqVNQk
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) June 7, 2018
Other liberal activists and journalists ran with Lawrence’s misleading tweet and even asserted that Hannity should be locked up in jail.
Sean Hannity just went berserk on-air about Trump-Russia, and probably sent himself to prison in the process https://t.co/TwT5clSeqf
— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) June 7, 2018
Congratulations to Sean Hannity for sending himself to prison with his on-air meltdown tonight.
— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) June 7, 2018
Film producer Adam Best tweeted, “we’ll see how far that gets them,” apparently missing the part of Hannity’s monologue where he clearly noted that Mueller’s targets would not have a good time if they followed Clinton’s lead.
Sean Hannity is using “but her emails” as an excuse for the entire Trump crime syndicate to destroy evidence. In Trumpland, merely speaking Hillary Clinton’s name is a get out of jail free card. Back in reality, we’ll se how far that gets them with Robert Mueller.
— Adam Best (@adamcbest) June 7, 2018
“Has Sean Hannity been arrested yet?” Ed Krassenstein, a self-proclaimed journalist, wrote.
Has Sean Hannity been arrested yet?
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) June 7, 2018
Scott Dworkin, the founder of a Trump resistance group, insisted that Hannity should be “indicted” for his anti-Hillary joke and guessed that the Fox News host would be in prison by next year.
Sean Hannity should be indicted for instructing witnesses to destroy material evidence. No one is above the law. Especially not Putin’s president or this unhinged bozo. #FireHannity pic.twitter.com/Yhz6KFPkVx
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) June 7, 2018
I think at this time next year Sean Hannity will be in prison. Not kidding.
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) June 7, 2018
Sean Hannity suggested that the witnesses in the Mueller probe, which he may be a subject, target or witness in, destroy their cell phones, before handing them to investigators.
What’s more troubling is that Trump & Hannity reportedly talk almost nightly. pic.twitter.com/9x25Rk4Xnf
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) June 7, 2018
Seriously, this is terrible legal advice, @seanhannity https://t.co/uSnovJ53IK
— Soledad O’Brien (@soledadobrien) June 7, 2018
This is not the first time that Media Matters has gone after Hannity, who gets the highest ratings out of any host on cable news television.
Last August, the group — which regularly tries to get right-wing pundits fired — targeted Hannity and his show for being a “Trump propaganda organization.” (RELATED: Media Matters Is Coming For Sean Hannity’s Advertisers — And His Job)
They coordinated another campaign in November after accusing Hannity of defending child sex abuse, even though Hannity explicitly said that anyone guilty of what Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore is accused of doing has no place in politics. (RELATED: Media Matters Using Roy Moore Allegations To Go After Hannity’s Advertisers)
Media Matters declined to target MSNBC host Joy Reid after her old homophobic blog posts were uncovered.
“What we have here is right-wing chicanery and revenge not based on a pattern of behavior but on a random thing plucked from time and space,” president Angelo Carusone said about Reid. “There’s no corrective action they seek here. Just revenge.”