Sean Hannity Lies to Fox Viewers about Obama’s Response to Oil Spill

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:02 pm

Hannity has to make sure that his viewers never find the truth

On his FNC program Hannity, Sean Hannity was doing his best to sell the oil spill in the Gulf as Obama’s Katrina, when he flat out lied to his audience and said, “The fact is they sat back for nine days and did absolutely nothing.” If by doing nothing Hannity meant deploying the Coast Guard within hours of the explosion, first for search and rescue then to contain the spill, then Obama did nothing.

Here is the video courtesy of Media Matters:

Hannity said, “The sole responsibility in this case when it’s an oil spill that gonna impact our fishing industry, our beaches, our shores would be the federal government. The fact is they sat back for nine days and they did absolutely nothing. The very same people that were so fast to criticize George W. Bush in the other two instances.”

I know Hannity is just mouthing the right wing talking point, but let’s put this one to bed, right now. Media Matters put together a great timeline of Obama administration action on this. The Coast Guard was on the scene after the explosion. On April 21 BP put out a statement that said the Coast Guard was there, “BP, which operates the licence on which Transocean’s rig was drilling an exploration well, said it was working closely with Transocean and the U.S. Coast Guard, which is leading the emergency response, and had been offering its help – including logistical support.”

On April 23, the Coast Guard released a statement about their efforts to mitigate the impact of the spill, “Although the oil appears to have stopped flowing from the well head, Coast Guard, BP, Transocean, and MMS remain focused on mitigating the impact of the product currently in the water and preparing for a worst-case scenario in the event the seal does not hold. Visual feed from deployed remotely operated vehicles with sonar capability is continually monitored in an effort to look for any crude oil which still has the potential to emanate from the subsurface well.”

On April 25 and 26th federal response crews were trying to skim the oil off of the water’s surface. Hannity was not only inaccurate about the Obama the administration’s response to the spill. He lied. I know how desperate the right is to bring Obama down, but an oil spill is not the same thing as a class 5 hurricane that the federal government had plenty of notice about, but chose to sit back and watch as American citizens died in their own homes. Obama’s response in this situation has been the anti-Bush, but for Sean Hannity the truth is simply not an option.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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