Fox News host Sean Hannity has spent an awful lot of time and credibility in recent days attacking U.S. Senate candidate Kathy Barnette. He endorsed Dr. Mehmet Oz in the Republican primary, and as I was told recently by Brannon Howse at Worldview Weekend, there are credible reports Hannity was the driving force in getting Donald Trump to endorse Oprah’s famous doctor.
This would make sense considering the all-out attacks Hannity and others have been engaged in against Barnette. His show last night was a doozy as he continued to go nuclear on the Black female veteran who nobody was talking about until she surged into a virtual three-way tie with Dr. Oz and David McCormick. Now, she’s a target.
Thankfully, many America First patriots are coming to her defense even as people like Hannity and Ric Grenell fall on their swords to try to save Donald Trump from an embarrassing loss by Dr. Oz.
There is one huge falsehood that is being spread by cronies of Dr. Oz which I will debunk thoroughly below. But before we get to that, I wanted to share the thoughts of other conservatives who have looked into the accusations against Barnette and come to a very different conclusion than what Sean Hannity is pushing.
Steve Deace said, “Just had @Kathy4Truth on. Going back to my local radio days I’ve exposed plenty of political frauds just with questioning. She should to be vetted like anyone else, but if she’s a fraud like Hannity claims, she’s the best I’ve ever seen. She came across as very real and sincere.”
Just had @Kathy4Truth on. Going back to my local radio days I've exposed plenty of political frauds just with questioning. She should to be vetted like anyone else, but if she's a fraud like Hannity claims, she's the best I've ever seen. She came across as very real and sincere.
— Steve Deace (@SteveDeaceShow) May 12, 2022
Regarding the nasty rumor being spread that she lied on her resume about teaching at Judson University, Todd Starnes said, “Hey @jackposobiec @JDRucker – just spoke with the head of communications and marketing at Judson University in Illinois. She confirmed that @Kathy4Truth was an adjunct at the school. Perhaps folks should consider fact-checking before slinging mud.”
https://twitter.com/toddstarnes/status/1525127004739317769
One attack against Barnette by Hannity that is mostly accurate is that she was not a Trump fan in 2015. Very much like U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance, who Trump endorsed, Barnette was skeptical about Trump in the early days. But she quickly came around, voted for him in both 2016 and 2020, and wholeheartedly supported him against both Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.
Of course, Hannity didn’t mention her change of heart, which happened in 2016 well ahead of the general election. Instead, he focused on “homophobic” Tweets and the comments about Trump from 2015.
Now Fox News personality Sean Hannity (who has endorsed Oz) attacking Kathy Barnette over her tweets where she expressed homophobic views https://t.co/iOXR84UULm
— Ryan Deto (@RyanDeto) May 12, 2022
Barnette has offered to go on Hannity’s show, especially after he kept letting Dr. Oz come on to lie about her.
If @SeanHannity wants to claim his show is “fair and balanced,” then bring me on, in-studio with @DrOz and let’s have a fair and balanced discussion.
I'm blocking out 9pm on Monday, just for you Sean.
Ratings will be huge! See you then.
— Kathy Barnette (@Kathy4Truth) May 12, 2022
Mike Cernovich reminded everyone that Hannity’s tactics seem awfully familiar, especially to anyone who has ever fell victim to leftist cancel culture. He said, “Hannity is trying to get people cancelled over tweets. Incredible.”
Hannity is trying to get people cancelled over tweets. Incredible. https://t.co/ZaboaQgChM
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) May 13, 2022
The Big Lie
Despite the various attempts by Hannity et al to cast doubt on Barnette’s character, the one argument that seems to be sticking with many conservatives is her electability. Many are basing this on claims that she was embarrassingly defeated in 2020 by a “weak” Democrat. On Thursday’s show, he said [emphasis added]:
“Kathy Barnett has not gotten any kind of vigorous, rigorous vetting that is now proving to be a massive problem in this race. Here’s why… In 2020 she was not a serious candidate in her congressional race she lost to a pretty weak Democrat by 19 points.”
What Hannity doesn’t mention is that the “weak” Democrat was Madeleine Dean, a Democrat incumbent in a very blue district. Compared to Dan David who ran against Dean in 2018, Barnette dramatically outperformed him, getting 48% more votes than David got in his race against Dean two years earlier.
Hannity and others are hoping that voters will equate losing in 2020 in a congressional race to a loss in 2022 in a senate race. This is unambiguously false and extremely disingenuous for them to rely on the ignorance of many voters. Her very strong performance in a very blue district is why she would almost certainly win in a statewide senate race.
The oldest play in the GOP Establishment’s playbook is to say that a conservative’s past controversial remarks disqualifies them, that we should go with the “sensible” choice so we can defeat the Democrat. That’s what Hannity is doing here. Of course, he was singing a very different tune in 2016 with Donald Trump, who had exponentially more “baggage” from past actions and remarks going into the general election than Kathy Barnette. She has offensive Tweets. Trump had so much more that some said would prevent him from winning, yet here we are.
Voters aren’t as stupid as Hannity, Democrats, and the GOP Establishment hope. We look at a candidate based on what we perceive they’ll be able to do for us. My support for Barnette is based on her ideas, but also based on aspects of Dr. Oz that she does not share.
I stand firmly beside @Kathy4Truth because unlike @DrOz, she is NOT a globalist RINO who has recently supported abortion, gun control, and child transgenderism.
She has not served in the Turkish military.
She is not pals with Klaus Schwab, Marina Abramovic, or Jussie Smollett.
— JD Rucker (@JDRucker) May 13, 2022
Barnette said it best herself on Twitter, stating, “Remember when they told you President Trump was unelectable and then he won? Remember when they told you Ron DeSantis was unelectable and then he won? They both won and gave us some of the best conservative representation we’ve ever seen. The ‘experts’ have no idea.”
https://twitter.com/Kathy4Truth/status/1525144521863995392
America First patriots should not let talking heads or RINO shills sway their vote. Do your research and know that there are people who are so desperate, they will lie just to get their globalist RINO elected.
I discussed this yesterday on the latest episode of The Midnight Sentinel:
