Following Wednesday’s blockbuster revelation that President Donald Trump admitted to journalist Bob Woodward that he intentionally misled the American public about the dangers of COVID-19, a number of Fox News personalities attempted to run cover for the president. Sean Hannity’s defense of the president, however, was perhaps the most ridiculous one yet.
Comparing Trump’s handling of the pandemic to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt leading the nation through the Great Depression, Hannity—sometimes referred to as Trump’s “shadow chief of staff”—brought up FDR’s most famous quote while simultaneously mangling it.
“Did President Roosevelt fan the flames of misery? Did he call for panic and anxiety? No, he actually rallied a nation in a time of need and focused on making Americans stronger by staying positive, and he got to work and rolled up his sleeves,” the Fox ghost proclaimed. “During World War II, with the country on the brink, FDR proclaimed, ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself.’ Well, those were brutally tough times. Did the media attack him? Of course not.”
The quote Hannity was attempting to reference was Roosevelt declaring that “the only thing to fear is fear itself,” which FDR said during his first presidential inauguration in 1933. The on-air graphic during the Fox segment read: “Hannity’s History Lesson.”
