Fox News presenter Sean Hannity spent President Donald Trump’s last night in office attacking Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, calling for McConnell to be replaced as Republican Senate leader after the Kentucky senator called Trump for provoking an insurrectional crowd.
Speaking from the Senate floor on Tuesday, McConnell criticized the president and “other powerful people” for inciting riots on Capitol Hill, saying the “crowd fed lies” about the election being “stolen” from Trump through baseless allegations of widespread electoral fraud. In addition to the president, it appeared that McConnell was sending a direct message to the members of his caucus, notably Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MO), who led the effort to block President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory.
Hannity, a close confidant and adviser to Trump, started his program by sharing a White House document that listed “1,000 Trump achievements”, insisting to his audience that “there are real things here, real achievements”.
Thereafter, Hannity devoted much of the rest of his opening monologue to attacking McConnell for not being loyal enough to the president he is leaving to certify Biden’s election.
“Now future minority leader Mitch McConnell and a handful of other longtime Republicans from the establishment are trying to reaffirm control of the Republican Party, and his handbook is unfortunately predictable,” grumbled Hannity. “Instead of taking on the mantle and promoting the president’s agenda for America First, they are shrinking in fear, withering under pressure from the media crowd, liberal Democrats and big technology companies.”
After stating once again that the president did nothing to incite the MAGA crowd, claiming that all Trump did was urge “his followers to march peacefully and patriotically to the Capitol so that their voices could be heard”, the Fox presenter News complained that McConnell and others “establishment republicans” were “cowards” for condemning the president.
“Republicans in the establishment have no backbone, no principles, no courage or vision,” he said. “Many politicians in DC are willing to follow through, get along and protect the swamp, which is why conservatives like me are tired of these empty promises and their rehearsed speeches and never doing anything.”
Hannity, who had already asked Senate Republicans to reject the “impeachment madness” and not participate in the Senate trial, called for a new Republican leadership.
“We need new leadership in the US Senate,” he was irritated. “You can represent the people of Kentucky. You are basically showing now that you are the king of establishment Republicans who, frankly, have always had and continue to have contempt for President Trump, but most importantly, the 75 million Americans who voted for him. ”
Interestingly, while Hannity was protesting against the Republican Party for not having Trump’s back, he didn’t seem very interested in the potential of an independent political party led by Trump.
“If you go back to 1964, Ronald Reagan gave a speech, a famous one called ‘The time to choose’,” he said. “He asked the question rhetorically: Is it a third party that the Republican Party needs? And he concluded that he was not. He said that we need a second revitalized party, without bull, strong colors and without pastel tones. “