OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Longtime host Sean Hannity ripped into co-host Steve Doocy for providing a fact check on something former President Donald Trump said on the campaign trail.
While appearing on Fox & Friends, the two Fox hosts got into an argument after Doocy brought up the possibility that Nikki Haley might win the New Hampshire GOP primary.
“There are 300,000 Democrats, 300,000 Republicans, 400,000 independents. If they all show up, they’re going to make a big difference,” Doocy argued, referring to independent voters possibly turning out in the GOP primary for Haley.
“It definitely is a possibility I don’t happen to like – I love the people in New Hampshire, I love the state of New Hampshire – I don’t like their system. What they call open primary, where people, you know, they were switching in the last number of weeks from Democrat to independent so they can wreak havoc inside the Republican Party,” Hannity replied.
Doocy stepped in to clarify that October 6th, months ago, was the actual deadline for switching parties. Doocy disproved the claim last week while discussing Trump’s criticism of Haley for reaching out to Democrats, of whom fewer than four thousand switched parties. Trump attacked Doocy on Truth Social because he corrected him.
Hannity side stepped Doocy’s comments and said: “Their thinking is okay if we help one candidate in this case, it would be Nikki Haley get over the hump then. Okay. That’s more money that whoever the inevitable Republican candidate is, it seems like Trump by a long shot. I think if Trump wins this tomorrow by the margins, we’re seeing it is over. I think a question for Nikki Haley, who I think ran a great campaign. Ron DeSantis ran a great campaign all the, you know, all the Monday morning quarterbacks don’t mean a thing to me. He went to all 99 counties, Ron did in Iowa.”
“Ultimate retail politician,” interjected Doocy.
“And he went out. He asked people for a vote in any of the year. What did he have, 21, 22%. That would be a great showing in Iowa, but this I keep saying about Donald Trump that he defies all conventional political gravity,” Hannity continued.
“That’s an understatement,” shot back Doocy.
“Well, to you it is. What’s happened to you, Steve? Are you moving to the left of me? What are you doing?” Hannity jested.
“I am screen left right now,” Doocy replied with a smile.
“That’s true of all the court cases. All of this that’s happened to Donald Trump is not helping him,” added co-host Ainsley Earhardt.
“It’s certainly. That’s where it defies conventional political gravity. You think somebody gets arrested or somebody gets arraigned that, oh, your poll numbers are going to go down,” Hannity replied as the conversation then pivoted to Trump’s legal trouble, which the co-hosts blamed on the Democrats.
WATCH:
Hannity confronts Doocy over Trump: ‘What’s happened to you, Steve? Are you moving to the left?’
Sean Hannity suggested that his Fox News colleague Steve Doocy could be shifting to the left after the host questioned GOP frontrunner Donald J. Trump over Democrats voting in the… pic.twitter.com/DgjwK5nEIl
— American Wire News (@americanwire_) January 23, 2024
The segment comes as voting begins in the New Hampshire presidential primary on Tuesday.
One of the biggest Catholic advocacy groups in the country has endorsed Trump.
According to Fox News, CatholicVote has endorsed Trump for president. Also, in Tuesday’s presidential primary, CatholicVote urges about 137,000 Catholic voters in New Hampshire to support Trump.
Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, spoke with Fox News and said the organization has “remained neutral” throughout the primary until this point because they believed there were “several viable and compelling candidates in the race.”
“But the number of candidates has dramatically winnowed over the last week, and we are now in a two-person race. And we think at this point it is important that Catholics start to begin to rally around President Trump. Not only would he be a far better choice than Nikki Haley, but he is the choice that Americans need in November. And Catholics… will play a critical role in this election, and the fate of our Catholic way of life is really at stake in this election,” Burch said.
Burch denied that endorsing Trump was “some big gamble,” claiming that the American people “watched him” for four years and praising the Obama administration’s track record of appointees to prominent federal courts.
Burch went on to praise Trump’s “courage” and the “kinds of people” he “surrounded himself with.”