Murdoch: Hannity was ‘privately disgusted’ with Trump after 2020 election
by Dominick Mastrangelo - 02/28/23 10:18 AM ETFox News host Sean Hannity was “privately disgusted” with former President Trump’s actions following his loss in the 2020 election, despite showing steadfast support on air, according to statements made by the network’s owner revealed in a new court filing this week.
The revelation came in the latest court filing made by Dominion Voting Systems, which is suing Fox News and billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch for defamation, seeking $1.6 billion in damages for what it calls the network’s repeated airing of false information about voter fraud.
According to the filing, former Republican Speaker Paul Ryan (Wis.), who sits on the board of Fox Corp., wrote to Murdoch after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Capitol by Trump supporters and said he believed that “some high percentage of Americans” thought the election had been rigged against Trump “because they got a diet of information telling them the election was stolen from what they believe were credible sources.”
“Thanks Paul,” Murdoch wrote back, according to the filing. “Wake-up call for Hannity, who has been privately disgusted by Trump for weeks, but was scared to lose viewers.”
Hannity’s statements around the time of the election and Jan. 6 attack have been a focus of lawmakers and the media for months. During the hearings of the House select committee on the attack, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), read into the congressional record a series of text messages the prime-time host sent sent to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, showing Hannity telling Meadows “this is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy.”
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https://thehill.com/homenews/media/3877142-murdoch-hannity-was-privately-disgusted-with-trump-after-2020-election/
