SPIN CLASS

Fox Host Makes Desperate Bid to Minimize Trump Shocker

Sean Hannity claimed the GOP’s midterm drubbing was nothing new.

Sean Hannity dismissed the GOP’s midterm massacre as something that happens to everyone.

When the GOP was swept away in a blue tsunami last week, the 64-year-old Fox News host blamed the Iran war. But on Monday night’s Hannity, he argued that Democrats flipping the House and Senate was just business as usual, another routine chapter in political history.

“All right, here is a real civics lesson,” Hannity said.

“Obama, Clinton, Ford, Reagan all suffered huge midterm losses. And guess what? Even as far back as Johnson, Eisenhower, FDR, midterm losses were greater than last week’s blue wave,” he argued.

“In other words, what happened during this year’s midterms is not unprecedented,” he went on. “As a matter of fact, it’s kind of more normal than not.”

But did Hannity’s leaders actually fare worse?

Ronald Reagan didn’t. In 1982, the Republicans lost 26 House seats and actually picked up a Senate seat. This year, the GOP is on track to lose more than 40 House seats and has already lost seven Senate seats.

REALITY CHECK

CNN Data Guru Humiliates Trump With Depths of Midterm Loss

Briana Charles

CNN’s numbers guru Harry Enten, 38, certainly didn’t see it Hannity’s way. On Sunday, Enten said Democrats were on track for a net gain of roughly 44 or 45 House seats. If they hold their leads in Alaska and Mississippi, they’ll also have flipped nine Senate seats. The last time this kind of slashing occurred was in 1948, under Harry S. Truman.

“My goodness gracious, mind blown, 78 years ago,” he said.

Play Video

When it comes to the Senate, Enten said the results could make history. The “blue-nami” has already won in South Carolina, Kansas, and Texas, states that haven’t backed them for president in at least 10 cycles. If they hold on in Alaska and Mississippi, they’ll have done it five times in one cycle.

CASH AND BURN

Fox Star Spells Out Brutal Reality of Trump’s Wealth Brags

Briana Charles

“Simply put, it has never, ever, ever happened. This is mind-boggling,” he said Monday.

Republicans went into Election Day holding the House, the Senate and the White House. But now Trump is a lame duck, facing two years of a Democratic Congress.

Hannity sounded much gloomier as the results came in on Election Night. Bret Baier, 56, went for a straight shot, asking him whether the Iran war had cost Republicans. Hannity didn’t even try to hedge.

“I think 100 percent. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it,” he said on election night.

Play Video

At the time, Hannity also acknowledged that voters weren’t feeling the benefits of Trump’s economic agenda. “If people don’t feel it, then it is a problem,” he said, pointing to “higher gas prices” driven by the war.

He didn’t shy away from immigration either, admitting that some of Trump’s enforcement tactics had rubbed voters the wrong way.

“Americans are good people with a heart, and they didn’t like some of what they saw,” he said.

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE

Briana CharlesReporter

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.