Hannity Assures Stephen A. Smith None of ‘The View’ Hosts Will Be ‘Taken Off’ Air Under Trump: ‘There’s Not Gonna Be Retribution’
Fox News host Sean Hannity assured ESPN host Stephen A. Smith that none of the co-hosts of The View would be “taken off” the air following President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration and that there would be no “retribution” for Trump’s critics.
During a discussion with Smith following Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, Hannity said, “You were very gracious, by the way. Privately, we have our own conversations and you said that to me, ‘I’ll live with it.'”
He continued:
I’ve had elections that I really wanted my side to win, that they lost, and you know what, Stephen A.? I go on and I plough through and I do my job. There’s not gonna be retribution. None of the hosts of The View are gonna be taken off– I used to go on that show. They wouldn’t even allow– they wouldn’t accept a conversation with me at this point. Isn’t that pretty pathetic? Because I used to like Whoopi Goldberg. Joyless Behar, eh, she’s a little–
Smith – who appeared on The View earlier that day – replied, “I would ask that you don’t look at the show. What you should look at is the ideological tilt that has taken place in our country.”
The ESPN host explained:
We’ve gotten to a point where God forbid somebody has a difference of opinion and a different form of ideology, then you’re damn near the Antichrist, and that’s not what makes this country great. I mean, the reality is is that, you know, we could sit up there and we could say what we want and everybody has their different opinions about Donald Trump. You know how I felt. You knew why I didn’t vote for him. I don’t like the way he behaves. I think the presidency is a statesmanship position and I think that that level of hubris that he’s accustom to showing needs to be dialled back significantly. But having said that, the bottom line is simple. You can look at a lot of things on the right or the left.
Smith went on to criticize Biden’s policies on immigration and his stance on identity politics, pointing out that many Americans “were not down for that,” and were instead primarily concerned about the economy and the crisis at the southern border, which the Democratic Party failed to adequately address.
During a Fox News town hall last year, Hannity asked Trump, “Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?”
“Except for day one,” replied Trump. “We’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator, ok?”
Watch above via Fox News.
