LOW BLOW: Hannity Smears Peaceful Trump Supporters Marching Down Street

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OPINION: This article contains commentary which may reflect the author’s opinion

Fox News talk show host Sean Hannity ran another attack piece on lightweight Republican candidate Kathy Barnette on Monday evening.

Hannity is a close personal friend of Dr. Oz, who is running for the US Senate seat in Pennsylvania against Kathy Barnette. So the motive for the hit on Oz’s opponent was undoubtedly based on bias.

However, this time, Hannity was making fun of  Trump supporters who were peacefully marching through the streets to the US Capitol on the morning of January 6th.

The Fox News host shared a video of Kathy Barnette walking down the street with his viewers.

Members of the Proud Boys surrounded her and the group casually walked down the street when Barnette was filmed. Hannity used this non-eventful innocent clip of the conservative candidate to concoct a narrative to his viewers that she was allegedly associated with extremists, in what seemed as an intentional character assassination.

The timing of airing this is suspect as well, considering Pennsylvanians will be heading to the polls of Tuesday, May 17th to cast their votes in this tight General Election.

In the segment, Sean Hannity said:

Look at your screen. Here is Barnette walking along side, this just broke today, radical Proud Boys during January 6th. She claims she had no idea who they were. And she didn’t breach the Capitol. And look at this…

Sean Hannity has certainly lost his way. This piece was nothing short of a slanderous attack on Trump supporters.

In this latest low blow against Trump supporters that FOX News allowed on their station, Sean Hannity has lost the trust of the network’s conservative Trump-supporting audience.

Perhaps Hannity hasn’t seen the polls showing Pennsylvanians’ support for Barnette though the blindness of his friendship with Oz. Whether he would vote for her or not, insulting supporters who are also FOX News fans and/or fans of Hannity himself (or were prior to this attack), was an unwise move for the show host.

As previously mentioned, Hannity has made it clear where he stands with his opinion on Barnette before, which also didn’t seem to go over too well. Clearly, he didn’t learn from that when he doubled down against her again on Monday.

The Independent reported:

Republican Pennsylvania Senate candidate Kathy Barnette is facing heat from influential Republicans — including Fox News host Sean Hannity — now that she’s surged to a front-runner position just days before the state’s primary.

GOP operatives backing celebrity talk show host Dr Mehmet Oz’s candidacy have circled the wagons and begun attacking Ms Barnette to try to hobble her ahead of the primary, NBC News reports.

Although former President Donald Trump gave his endorsement and public support to Dr. Oz, he did say that he would support her if she did win.

“Kathy Barnette will never be able to win the General Election against the Radical Left Democrats,” Mr Trump said in a statement. “She has many things in her past which have not been properly explained or vetted, but if she is able to do so, she will have a wonderful future in the Republican Party — and I will be behind her all the way.”

In the event that she were to win the election, Ms Barnette would be the first Black senator of Pennsylvania.

“While Dr Oz and hedge fund executive Dave McCormick battled for the primary seat, Ms Barnette flew largely under the radar. She landed a major endorsement from a Club for Growth Action, a conservative organization which spent $2m for commercials boosting her candidacy,” Independent reported.

“Those opposing Ms Barnette have begun airing an ad calling her ‘Crazy Kathy,’ which includes clips of the candidate talking about ‘systemic racism,’ particularly ‘among police officers,’” the article added.

According the Independent’s report:

Fox News host Sean Hannity has also been badgering Ms Barnette to talk to him. Thus far, Ms Barnette has dodged his requests, and likely with good reason; Hannity is an outspoken supporter of her opponent, Dr Oz.

On his show, Hannity also showed some of Ms Barnette’s old tweets while Dr Oz was appearing as a guest. Hannity said Ms Barnette was unelectable.

“I concur with your diagnosis,” Dr Oz said when Hannity asked for his response. “She is a mystery. Barnette won’t answer questions about her record, but what I do know concerns me.”

If the Fox News logo and chyron weren’t on the screen during this exchange between Hannity and his good friend Dr. Oz, one would have thought the channel had somehow switched to a liberal news outlet like CNN or MSNBC.

Although Republicans presumably have the upper hand in 2022 and both Barnette and Oz are both congressional candidates running on the GOP ticket, there is no time or place for infighting within the party. Democrats will see this as a weakness and expose it to their advantage.

Will you continue to tune into Fox News and/or Sean Hannity? Let us know in the comment section below.

Source: The Republic Brief