The same day Donald Trump announced that he is the target of Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 investigation, the former president complained to longtime ally Sean Hannity during a pre-taped Fox News town hall that he was “bothered” by the developments yet would not be “frightened.”
In Trump’s second town hall on the conservative network since the beginning of June, Hannity began with a softball question, asking his pal how he seems so unfazed by the several criminal investigations he faces.
Trump was indicted in March on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a case brought by the Manhattan District Attorney over hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. In June, a federal grand jury impaneled by Smith issued a 37-count indictment for willful retention of national defense information and conspiring to obstruct justice, among several other crimes, relating to his alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, while no longer president.
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And in Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has suggested that indictments relating to Trump’s 2020 election interference in that state could come before September. On Monday, the state Supreme Court unanimously agreed to toss Trump’s bid to quash her investigation.
In light of “all these never-ending attacks,” as Hannity phrased it, “it doesn’t seem to bother you like I think it would bother so many other people. What is it about you that it doesn’t?”
Trump, though, didn’t quite go along with the Fox host’s view of the situation.
“No, it bothers me. It bothers me for everybody in this incredible sold-out audience,” he said to those gathered in Des Moines.
Trump then regurgitated his complaint that the investigations into him are “election interference,” and that the Department of Justice is partisan.
“They want to try to demean and diminish and frighten people,” he insisted. “But they don’t frighten us because we’re going to make America great again. That’s all there is.”
Hannity dutifully replied that he has never felt “more fearful of the state of this country than I am right now.”
Minutes later, Hannity—in classic Fox fashion—attempted a clunky transition from Trump’s legal woes to Hunter Biden.
“We cannot ignore today’s events, when you put out your Truth Social posts,” Hannity said.
“By that, I want to talk about what is clearly now what the Judiciary Committee under Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is looking into: whether or not our FBI and our Department of Justice have been weaponized and politicized,” he said. “I have two headlines here: ‘FBI tipped off Biden team, Secret Service about plan to interview Hunter.’”
Shortly after, Hannity name-dropped none other than Hillary Clinton.
Hannity, of course, denigrated the work of the House Jan. 6 Committee, which ultimately made four criminal referrals of Trump to the DOJ, two of which were for obstructing an official proceeding and defrauding the government by committing a conspiracy.
It remains to be seen which crime or crimes Trump will be charged with as a result of his attempts to cling to power after losing the 2020 presidential election.
