In the alternative universe of Fox News, the bombshell revelations in Bob Woodward's new book about Donald Trump and the coronavirus was overblown, the revelations inconsequential, the president blameless.
Yes, Donald Trump may have acknowledged on the Woodward tapes “downplaying” the virus for months, one that has gone on to kill at least 190,000 Americans at last count, but Sean Hannity offered the president an out when he called into the Fox News host's show on Wednesday night.
He quickly conceded that, yes, maybe Trump did tell Woodward in early February that “this thing was going to be five times worse than a normal flu virus” – while saying the exact opposite in public – but that a week earlier he had banned travel from China. “So actions mean something,” said Hannity. “Let's make one thing perfectly clear,” Hannity told his viewers. “President Trump has never misled or distorted the truth about this deadly truth. No, he acted faster than anyone else.”On his show, Hannity also made the improbable argument that, in saying that he didn't want to tell the American public the truth about the virus because he didn't want them to panic, Trump was just following the lead of the president who guided the country through both a Depression and a a World War. “Did President Roosevelt fan the flames of misery? Did he call for panic and anxiety?” said Hannity. “No, he actually rallied a nation in a time of need, he focused on making Americans stronger by staying positive, and he got to work and he rolled up his sleeves.” Hannity added: "During World War II, with the country on the brink, FDR proclaimed: ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself. Did the media attack him? Of course not." During that interview, Hannity quickly pivoted away from the Woodward tapes, to bring up the subject of the election and Trump's Nov. 3 opponent. “There's voting going on now,” Hannity said, “You see Joe Biden, he makes very few appearances … I don't think he has answered 100 questions since March. You've answered a thousand-plus. Do you think the media is giving him a pass?” Then, before Trump had a chance to respond, Hannity added that he had talked to a lot of people – “even some Democrats” – and “they tell me that Joe looks weak, he looks frail."Perhaps the most astonishing moment of last night's wall-to-wall defense of Trump came during Tucker Carlson's show, when he laid all the blame at the feet of the golfing buddy of the president, even suggesting he might have had ulterior motives. A few hours after news about the book had begun to ricochet across the media landscape, Carlson expressed surprise that Trump had even given Woodward those interviews and. “Why in the world would he do that? Well, tonight from a source who knows the answer to that mystery, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina,” Carlson said, without naming his source. “It was Lindsey Graham who helped convince Donald Trump to talk to Bob Woodward, Lindsey Graham brokered that meeting, Lindsey Graham even sat in on the first interview between Bob Woodward and the president. How'd that turn out?” Carlson then began to spin out a theory of possible betrayal. “Lindsey Graham is supposed to be a Republican, so why would he do something like that?” he said.“You'd have to ask him, but keep in mind that Lindsey Graham has opposed, passionately opposed, virtually every major policy initiative that Donald Trump articulated when he first ran, from ending illegal immigration, to pulling back from pointless wars, to maintaining law and order at home, Lindsey Graham was against all of that more than many Democrats. So maybe you already know the answer.” The moment soon became a trending topic on Twitter, with many people posting variations on the “throwing under the bus” theme. But perhaps the best reaction came in a one-word response from the Lincoln Group, the coalition of disaffected Republicans trying to unseat the president: “Delicious.”
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