Democrats and the media have predictably freaked out over former President Donald Trump's obvious joke during a town hall-style interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity about being a "dictator," albeit only on "day one," if re-elected to a second term in 2024.
Now former Trump advisor Steve Bannon has slammed Hannity as an "idiot" for asking the question that elicited the response that gave Trump's enemies and rivals ammunition to attack the former president as a would-be tyrant, according to The Hill.
Bannon argued that while Hannity may have thought he was helping Trump address accusations that he would be an authoritarian leader if re-elected, in reality, the Fox News host played right into the hands of Trump's critics and bolstered the partisan predictions of Trump's purported dictatorial ambitions.
During the Tuesday night town hall-style event in Iowa, Hannity referenced media reports about how former President Trump would be an authoritarian leader in a second term and would abuse his powers to exact "retribution" against his political enemies and rivals.
"To be clear, do you in any way have any plans whatsoever, if reelected president, to abuse power, to break the law, to use the government to go after people?" Hannity asked, to which Trump replied without hesitation, "You mean like they're using right now" in reference to President Joe Biden's administration and its multiple criminal indictments against him.
Hannity returned to the topic again later and asked, according to Axios, "Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?"
"Except for day one," Trump replied. "I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill." When Hannity retorted that such actions weren't "retribution," Trump seemingly mocked the Fox News host and said to the audience, "I love this guy, he says, 'you're not going to be a dictator are you?' I said no, no, no, other than day one. We're closing the border and we're drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I'm not a dictator."
Hannity asks Trump for a second time if he has plans to abuse power. Trump admits he plans to do some dictatorial things on "day one" of his second term. pic.twitter.com/51b9I8bIJ7
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 6, 2023
Democrats and the media, of course, ran wild in fear-mongering over former President Trump's "dictator" commentary, which Mediaite reported led to a stern rebuke of Hannity by former Trump advisor Steve Bannon on his "War Room" podcast on Wednesday.
Bannon first knocked the Murdoch family that owns Fox News as "morons" and said the network itself was "TV for stupid people" before he said, "Sean Hannity actually thought he was helping Trump last night. 'Let me ask you a question, will you be a dictator?'"
He observed that both Trump and the audience were heckling Hannity over the insanity of the question and noted, "By the way, Sean, they're laughing at you. They're laughing at the stupid, ridiculous question -- of course, Trump's not a dictator. It's absurd."
Bannon further asserted that Hannity was "an idiot" for even asking the question that allowed for the video clips to be used by the liberal media, and said, "We don’t have time for idiots, bro. This is a war, OK? This is a war. We don’t have time for sunshine patriots in this nonsense, and don’t carry the water for the Murdochs and don’t carry the water for the left."
"How dumb are you?" he later asked rhetorically. "This is real life. We're playing for keeps here, dude. We don't care about your $25 million contract. We're playing for keeps, this is war, and you're just not good enough and just not smart enough."
