In 2018, Fox News reprimanded Sean Hannity for campaigning on Donald Trump’s behalf, with the network stating that it “does not condone any talent participating” in campaign work after the star host caused “an unfortunate distraction” by speaking at a rally. However, Hannity’s involvement in the Trump campaign reportedly did not stop there. During the 2020 election, he helped write an official Trump TV ad that exclusively aired during his own Fox News show, according to a forthcoming book, “Frankly, We Did Win This Election”: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost. Punchbowl News reported that author Michael Bender, The Wall Street Journal’s White House reporter, will disclose “amazingly hilarious revelations” about the “Trump posse,” including Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and Rudy Giuliani, in the book that is set for an August release.
“The Hannity ad” or “the one Hannity wrote,” as the spot was purportedly dubbed by Trump campaign insiders, was ridiculed by the former president’s own staff. “Inside the campaign, the spot was mocked mercilessly—mostly because of the dramatic, over-the-top language and a message that seemed to value quantity over quality,” writes Bender. “Trump himself, in a post-election interview with Bender, did not dispute that Hannity wrote the ad, which called [Joe] Biden a ‘47-year swamp creature’ who had ‘accomplished nothing’ and supported a ‘radical, socialist Green New Deal.’” One unnamed Trump aide did describe it by saying, “Hannity said this is our best spot yet.”
As Bender revealed, Trump’s campaign viewed the Hannity ad as “so useless that they limited it to exactly one show: Hannity…. If Trump and Hannity watched the spot on television—and were satisfied enough to stop asking about the commercial—that seemed to be the best result of the ad. The cost of that investment: $1.5 million.” Hannity, who has already been seen as an informal adviser to Trump, denied involvement in the ad. “The world knows that Sean Hannity supports Donald Trump. But my involvement specifically in the campaign—no. I was not involved that much. Anybody who said that is full of shit,” Hannity said in a statement to Bender. (When reached for comment, Fox News reiterated Hannity’s denial. )
Bender’s upcoming book could end up being just one of many Trump 2020 autopsies that reporters publish over the next year. As my colleagues Charlotte Klein and Joe Pompeo reported in March, Trump is doing everything he can to retroactively cement his side of the story, including giving interviews to authors he was quick to attack on Twitter, such as Michael Wolff and Maggie Haberman. Haberman, the star Trump whisperer for The New York Times, broke the news on Tuesday that Trump is claiming to “a number of people he’s in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated” as president by August.
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