Since Fox News first went on-air in October 1996, Sean Hannity has been a mainstay in the network’s primetime lineup.
He’s kept a loyal following of viewers despite the ever-changing political environment of the past few decades, and evidently counts former President Donald Trump among them.
But that may be changing after he undermined one of Trump’s signal triumphs while in office, securing the Supreme Court majority to overturn Roe v Wade.
Hannity’s betrayal came after an Ohio ballot measure had him once again spooked on the issue of abortion.
Last week, an Ohio ballot initiative that sought to raise the voter approval threshold for new constitutional amendments in the state to 60% failed by a rather significant margin, meaning any new amendments to the state’s constitution will only need a simple majority – 50% plus one vote – for approval.
Most everyone viewed the initiative as a test case for an upcoming Democrat-led effort to override Ohio’s pro-Life Heartbeat Bill, which bans abortions after a heartbeat is developed, and enshrine abortion-on-demand in the state constitution with a simple majority vote.
And obviously, the fact that the voter approval threshold wasn’t raised is a major setback for conservative efforts to protect the sanctity of human life in Ohio.
As such, the political overreactions have been in full swing, and none other than Fox News’ Sean Hannity may have just come up with the biggest overreaction of all.
During a segment in which he discussed the pro-Life defeat with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and 2022 Michigan Republican Gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon, Hannity claimed he’s concerned Democrats will attack pro-Life Republicans as so-called “extremists,” driving many suburban voters away from the GOP.
“We saw the vote in Ohio,” Hannity said. “The fear among many, many conservatives is this will chase away many suburban voters. Do you agree with that, Mike Huckabee?”
But Huckabee, who is obviously one of the more pro-Life politicians of his generation, was having none of Hannity’s assertions, and proceeded to rightfully point out that Republicans just haven’t done a good enough job of highlighting Democrats’ extremist position.
“I do not,” Huckabee shot back. “I think the problem is Republicans have done a very pitiful job of explaining that the difference is we want to protect life, Democrats want to take it right up to the point of birth. They want to butcher a fully developed child. We’ve got to take it to the Democrats. Quit playing defense. Let’s be clear about what we stand for.”
Dixon also disagreed with Hannity’s take, and echoed Huckabee’s sentiment that Republicans have to do a better job with explaining the pro-Life position to voters.
“Their message is very strong on this,” Dixon stated. “They’ve won over women. We saw it. We just saw it in Ohio. We have to start fighting on the cultural side of it, and we have to fight on the issues that matter to people politically on the political side in a different way.”
But rather than simply move on, Hannity doubled down, calling for Republicans to adopt a version of former President Bill Clinton’s “safe, legal, and rare” talking point.
“I think the American people – and I consider myself pro-Life, I believe in the sanctity of life, but I think politically that there is – Republicans have gotta say as Bill Clinton once said – I never thought I’d quote him – ‘rare,’ ‘legal,’ and I’d add the word[s], ‘very early in a pregnancy,’” Hannity claimed. “That seems to be – politically – where the country is. Maybe I’m wrong. But we’ll see. That vote in Ohio is pretty, pretty sobering.”
Needless to say, the fact that top Republicans are pushing completely different messages on abortion than the conservative base, while Democrats universally back their extremist abortion-on-demand position, underscores Huckabee and Dixon’s calls for the GOP to improve its messaging on the issue.
The only way to truly do that is to take the fight to Democrats and actually point out that the true extremist position is their abortion-on-demand up until – and often after – the moment of birth.
GOP establishment elites like Sean Hannity have to decide whether they’re actually pro-Life and stick to it, or their conservative audiences will have to reject them.
Otherwise, Democrats will continue to win on the issue.
Political Animal News will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
