Conservative commentator Sean Hannity, who repeatedly allowed 2020 election fraud theorists onto his show following the election, admitted under oath that he never believed Trump’s claims of fraud in the election.
Hannity was asked in a deposition about claims by Sidney Powell that Dominion voting machines were rigged against Trump. Hannity had Powell on his show and allowed her to spread those claims.
Fox News is now being sued by Dominion Voting Systems for $1.6 billion in restitution, and Hannity was forced to sit for a deposition.
The New York Times reported:
“At the center of this imagined plot were machines from Dominion Voting Systems, which Ms. Powell claimed ran an algorithm that switched votes for Mr. Trump to votes for Joseph R. Biden Jr. Dominion machines, she insisted, were being used “to trash large batches of votes.”
“Mr. Hannity interrupted her with a gentle question that had been circulating among election deniers, despite a lack of supporting proof: Why were Democrats silencing whistle blowers who could prove this fraud?
“Did Mr. Hannity believe any of this?
‘“I did not believe it for one second.”’
“That was the answer Mr. Hannity gave, under oath, in a deposition in Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, according to information disclosed in a court hearing on Wednesday. The hearing was called to address several issues that need to be resolved before the case heads for a jury trial, which the judge has scheduled to begin in April.”
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10 Responses
Hannity is no dummy and he never claimed to be a journalist or hard news reporter with any commitment to facts or accuracy. The Fox News evening lineup consists of “personalities” not Walter Cronkites. The best analogy is to think of the “professional wrestlers” who assume a persona and act out an improvised story-line or script that has been proven to attract viewers. Same for Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingram etc. They are all fairly smart individuals, with conservative leanings but have proven skills to stoke “rage” among segments of political right and keep finding “new” shticks to create new broigas. MSNBC, CNN etc have the same business model to lesser degrees but their personalities don’t have the skills of the Fox evening hosts and their viewership is somewhat less willing to buy into their storyliness
If Hannity claimed the election was stolen, and took legal actions based on that claim, even though he believed the election was not stolen, then Hannity is guilty of fraud.
If Trump believed his own claims (not absurd, exit polling suggested he won, and a radical difference between in-person election day voting and mail-in ballots usually indicates fraud), then Trump is not guilty of fraud. The “smoking gun” the Democrats need to produce is evidence that Trump in fact believed he had lost, and he invented the “stolen election” story in spite of knowing its falsehood. Being mistaken is not the basis for fraud – you have to know you are lying.
“MSNBC, CNN etc have the same business model to lesser degrees but their personalities don’t have the skills of the Fox evening hosts and their viewership is somewhat less willing to buy into their storyliness“
🙄
Riiiiiiiight
😂
I’m not ready to completely believe this report yet, there is no question that Gadolhatorahhah
Akuperma Said is best 👆👆👆👍
as soon as you said from the New York Times, I understood that this is fake news and I don’t take believe this is true at all, in fact its taken out of context if you look closely to the “conversation ” quoted from the NYT
““Mr. Hannity interrupted her with a gentle question that had been circulating among election deniers, despite a lack of supporting proof: Why were Democrats silencing whistle blowers who could prove this fraud?
“Did Mr. Hannity believe any of this?
‘“I did not believe it for one second.”’”
The biggest evil in the above is the term “election deniers” as a perjorative. Questioning aspects of what went on in an election does not make people “election deniers”. All the prominent Democrats denied the election results when Republicans used to win on occasion, and the video is out there for those interested.
Of course, the actual election deniers would be the ones who deviously and intentionally prevented critical information from reaching the American people before the election. But that’s just “icing on the cake”.
The rishus and sheker is astonishing.
Hannity, Carlson, Piro, are entertainers a fact many viewers don’t understand.
@Akuperma
A difference between absentee ballots and in person voting results is NOT usually indicative of Fraud.
Absentee and early voting (excluding military) tend to have a much higher percentage of registered Democrats than Republicans. In person day of election voting is the opposite.
I have been asst Registrar of Voters for 20 years. In our town this year we issued 4000 absentee ballots, 1700 to Registered Democrats, 1600 to Unaffiliated voters and 700 to Registered Republicans. This in a town with 51% unaffiliated, 25% registered Democrats and 24% registered Republicans.
Election Day in person voters were 50% unaffiliated, 26% Registered Republican and 24% Registered Democrats.
Loads of split ballots evidenced in a hand recount of a race win by 8 votes. The recount had the same result as the machine count, the Republican won that contest.
Circle: Not clear what you are not ready to believe. Clearly, Hannity said under oath that he didn’t believe the “stolen election” meshugaas with respect to the voting machines. That doesn’t mean he couldn’t say he did believe it on TV when he wasn’t under oath. I’m sure he does believe there were issues with how the elections were conducted in some states and last minute changes mandated by the courts but not enough to change the outcome.