WASHINGTON — Rep. Keith Ellison had a fiery appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program Tuesday night, calling Hannity “the worst excuse for a journalist I’ve ever seen” after the host’s mocking reproach of President Obama.
Ellison appeared on the program ostensibly to talk about Obama’s Tuesday speech about sequestration, the federal spending cuts set to take effect at the end of the week. Instead, Ellison took offense at a preceding segment in which Hannity called Obama “the alarmist in chief, the president of panic himself,” and aired a mash-up of his speeches with dramatic opera music laid over it. Ellison called it “yellow journalism,” saying, “Every journalism ethic I’ve ever heard of was violated by you.”
“You are a shill for the Republican Party,” Ellison said. “You alibi them constantly, you alibi them 100 percent of the time, you don’t do anything else.”
At one point, Hannity let Ellison talk for about a minute, during which time Ellison made his main point, that Republicans are as much to blame for the sequester as Democrats. Hannity tried to interject with a question, which led to this exchange:
Hannity: “I’ve given you plenty of time to rant, Congressman.”
Ellison: “We’ll let you get a word in.”
Hannity (sarcastically): “Oh, you’re so nice to give me a word on my own program.”
Ellison: “Ok, I changed my mind…”
Name calling eventually ensued. Each called the other a broken record. Ellison called Hannity immoral. Hannity called Ellison “a total waste of time," and eventually ended the interview.
Here’s video of the exchange, including the opening segment:
Devin Henry can be reached at dhenry@minnpost.com. Follow him on Twitter: @dhenry