Fox News star Sean Hannity probably didn’t expect this reaction.
Executives at the company said Tuesday that it has addressed the “unfortunate distraction” of stars Hannity and Jeanine Pirro speaking at President Trump’s campaign rally in Missouri. The executives said they don’t condone such behavior, but did not say what, if any, discipline that the two network personalities would face.
Meanwhile, Hannity tweeted on Tuesday that he was being “100 percent truthful” earlier on Monday when he tweeted that “I will not be on stage campaigning with the president.”
“When the POTUS invited me on stage to give a few remarks last night, I was surprised, yet honored by the president’s request,” Hannity tweeted. “This was NOT planned.”
https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/1059859874513907714
Hannity, who told the audience at Trump’s rally that “all these people in the back are fake news,” also tweeted Tuesday that he was not referring to any of his Fox News colleagues.
https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/1059859996966576129
The 21st Century Fox-owned news network said in a statement to Mediaite that, “Fox News does not condone any talent participating in campaign event.” They added, “We have an extraordinary team of journalists helming our coverage tonight and we are extremely proud of their work. This was an unfortunate distraction and has been addressed.”
Hannity, cable news’ most popular personality and a vocal Trump defender,was made to cancel a 2010 appearance in Cincinnati when it was revealed he was participating in a fundraiser for the Tea Party. When he was featured in a 2016 Trump campaign video, Fox told him to never do it again.
Already No. 1 in the cable news ratings, Fox has had a strong fall with the campaign and hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, with Hannity leading the way.
In the past, Hannity has said that he’s a talk show host, not a journalist. But in an interview with The New York Times a year ago, he said he was a journalist, more specifically an advocacy or opinion journalist.
Hannity broadcasted his show from the site of the rally Monday, where he exhorted viewers to vote Republican and echoed a Trump campaign theme seen on banners: “Promises made, promises kept.” He spoke briefly on camera with Trump at the end of the show.
Trump called Hannity to the stage after praising Fox, saying, “they’re very special, they’ve done an incredible job for us. They’ve been with us from the beginning.” Hannity hugged Trump and then recited economic statistics. Pirro, a former New York state attorney general who has a weekend show on Fox, spoke after him.
Their speeches weren’t televised on Fox News.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.