Hannity calls report Trump tried to fire Mueller an unconfirmed 'distraction,' confirms it, pivots to car crash

Sean Hannity corrects himself on-air
(Image credit: Screenshot/Twitter/Fox News)

Sean Hannity's lead story on his Fox News show Thursday was the 2016 meeting between Bill Clinton and the attorney general at the time, Loretta Lynch, nearing the end of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. The rest of the mainstream media is "trying to change the story," Hannity said. "At this hour, The New York Times is trying to distract you — they have a story that Trump wanted Mueller fired sometime last June, and our sources — and I've checked in with many of them — they're not confirming that tonight." Trump's lawyer had no comment, he added, "and how many times has The New York Times and others gotten it wrong?"

Apparently a producer from the news side of Fox News contacted Hannity over the next 40 minutes, because near the end of the show, Hannity did a 180. "Okay, so we have sources tonight just confirming to Ed Henry that yeah, maybe Donald Trump wanted to fire the special counsel for conflict," he said. "Does he not have the right to raise those questions?" Hannity turned to a non-distracting story about a brutal car crash in Arizona.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.