Fox News host Sean Hannity has been vocal in his opposition to airing live coverage of the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, previously telling his viewers “we’re not going to torture you” by airing it. That changed on night eight of the trial, when Hannity tuned in to hear Trump impeachment lawyer Alan Dershowitz answer “a question on the framers of the Constitution.”
Riveting.
Dershowitz has appeared on Hannity's program 41 times in the past year. After airing Dershowitz’s argument, Hannity took issue with criticism MSNBC had levied at the Harvard law professor, stating, “I bet Harvard is pretty proud tonight.”
Prior to airing Dershowitz, Hannity had almost entirely ignored the impeachment trial, airing less than two minutes of coverage and sometimes vowing not to subject his viewers to it or apologizing for the brief seconds he did present.
On January 21, after Hannity aired less than a minute of Trump lawyer Pat Cipollone speaking, he stated, “We will dip in and out, but we’re not going to torture you.” On January 29, before playing Dershowitz, Hannity dipped in for 30 seconds of Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), telling his viewers, “Apparently, Jerrold Nadler’s going nuts right now. Well, let us dip in -- I promise I won’t stay that long. I’ll stay as little as possible.” It was just a few minutes later where he aired Dershowitz -- who had been widely panned earlier in the day for his flimsy legal arguments -- for over four minutes, calling his commentary “compelling.”
Apparently, Dershowitz droning on is the only thing Sean Hannity finds “compelling” in this entire impeachment trial.
