Fox News host Sean Hannity lashed out at the New York Times Saturday after the outlet published a story about over the weekend detailing the advising relationships President Donald Trump has with two dozen or so advisers, including Hannity.
The Times report detailed the unofficial and official relationships Trump has with 20 different people including his wife, first lady Melania Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Hannity, Fox News parent company owner Rubert Murdoch, Roger Stone and other family members including his two sons, his lawyer, other media members, business peers and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Here's what the Times wrote about Hannity:
Presidents always deploy surrogates to appear on television to spout their talking points, but Mr. Trump has expanded on that by developing relationships with sympathetic media figures like Mr. Hannity who also serve as advisers. Mr. Hannity, the Fox News host, defends Mr. Trump’s most controversial behavior in public, but privately, according to people close to Mr. Trump, he urges the president not to get distracted, and advises him to focus on keeping pledges like repealing the Affordable Care Act.
Hannity took to his Twitter account Saturday evening to fire back at the report in a series of rapid-fire tweets, where the Fox News host made his disdain for the newspaper very clear.
In his tweets, Hannity accused the Times of colluding with Hillary Clinton in last year's presidential election, labeled the newspaper a "fake news" outlet and inquired whether or not he was "surveilled and unmasked" by the Times and National Security Agency because he has "never" talked with the Times — about Trump, at least.
Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent for the Times who co-authored the story with fellow Times White House reporter Glenn Thrush, fired back at Hannity for his reaction, given that the story was "hardly critical" of the Fox host.
W all due respect, we were interested in who POTUS talks to, not you, and several ppl close to him cited you https://t.co/sb9y4nDJYt— Maggie Haberman (@Maggie Haberman) 1492899039.0
Also reached out to Fox News pr, who took no issue w it. And it was hardly critical of you. Not sure why the reax https://t.co/sb9y4nDJYt— Maggie Haberman (@Maggie Haberman) 1492899094.0
She added in a subsequent tweet that it's "widely known," even to people not as well-sourced or experienced in Washington politics as Haberman, that Hannity is a close unofficial adviser to Trump.
@RosieGray @GlennThrush It's really widely known for folks around POTUS, even attenuated ones, that he talks to Hannity— Maggie Haberman (@Maggie Haberman) 1492903576.0
Thrush also added a tweet to the mix:
I was once sitting with a Republican elected official preparing for an interview when he got an email from u giving… https://t.co/TCNeCwtKoG— Glenn Thrush (@Glenn Thrush) 1492899351.0
Hannity replied to Haberman's tweets on Sunday by inquiring if she has ever "publicly commented on how @wikileaks revealed the @nytimes colluded" with Clinton. Hannity also took issue with the fact that Haberman allegedly didn't contact him for the story and that the Times has a "biased anti-Trump agenda."
UNBELIEVABLE: THIS politician has been absent 33.4% of the time, but there’s someone with an even WORSE record