CNN senior media correspondent Brian Stelter asked what Sean Hannity is “hiding” Tuesday after news broke that the Jan. 6 committee wants to speak with the Fox News host.
Axios reported the House select committee investigating the riot at the Capitol had asked Hannity to voluntarily speak with lawmakers. Hannity has been in the committee’s crosshairs before, as Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) revealed he sent former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows a text message during the riot.
“Can he make a statement?” Hannity texted Meadows with the “he” being a reference to former President Donald Trump. “Ask people to leave the Capitol.”
Hannity’s attorney Jay Sekulow commented on the committee’s request to speak to his client in a comment to Axios.
Sekulow said, “If true, any such request would raise serious constitutional issues including First Amendment concerns regarding freedom of the press.”
Stelter was asked Tuesday for his reaction to the news on CNN Newsroom with hosts Alisyn Camerota and Victor Blackwell, he responded:
“I think the big question that a lot of people are going to want to know is, including Sean Hannity’s viewers is what is Sean Hannity hiding? What does Hannity know that he he has been hiding from his audience? Because he has an audience of millions of people who rely on him, who trust him, who believe him, even though he has given them many reasons to disbelieve.”
Stelter, who Hannity has called “
“And so what has he been hiding from them for the past year? I think it’s very significant this is voluntary. It’s not a subpoena. It is not a situation where we’re going to be talking about a dramatic First Amendment debate. Certainly if it did escalate to that point, there would be interesting questions about the role of a media responsibility who acts as a shadow chief of staff to a former president, and what that shadow chief of staff knew in the days leading up to the riot.””That’s an interesting First Amendment issue at some point. But this This is just a voluntary request. And let’s also remember that Sean Hannity has repeatedly and loudly for the last 11 or 12 years said journalism is dead in America. He says journalism is dead but all of the sudden as soon as there’s a request from a legal committee he doesn’t like, he wraps himself in the first amendment flag and says this would breach the first amendment.”
The Reliable Sources host concluded, “So it really comes down to the key question. What’s he hiding?”
Watch above, via CNN.