All three guests debunk Sean Hannity’s defense of Roy Moore on his own show

In an amazing segment on his Fox News show this Friday, Sean Hannity had on a guest panel to discuss the allegations surrounding Alabama Senate nominee Roy Moore. The discussion comes on the heels of Hannity’s very public and very adamant defense of Moore, who allegedly sexually molested a 14-year-old girl when he was 32. To Hannity’s credit, the segment was aired uncut and it plainly showed the flaws in the Fox host’s logic.

The panel consisted of Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarett, Geraldo Rivera, and trial attorney Rebecca Rose Woodland. Starting out the discussion, Hannity pointed to “all the people in our industry who have been wrong” and the “rush to judgement on high profile cases.” He then ran through a questionable list of news stories that he believes were misreported.

“We have to balance serious allegations here with also the presumption of innocence,” Hannity said. But Rivera was having none of it.

“I think, with all due respect, you’re burying the lede,” Rivera replied before praising Hannity’s “smart” and “deeply revealing” interview with Moore earlier on Friday.

“So what are we talking about here?” Rivera continued. “We’re talking about he said-she said. So the credibility of the parties is the most relevant thing you can think of. I picture Judge Roy Moore just then sitting in the witness chair and you asking him those questions. And hearing his denials — his non-denial denials, his fumfering … When you asked him, did he date these young women, or these girls, and he said, ‘No, generally not’ — No generally not? That means there are exceptions to a general rule? I thought, Sean … you ended [Roy Moore’s] candidacy and I would urge Republicans to postpone the special election.”

When Hannity gave the floor to Rebecca Rose Woodland, she was in full agreement.

“The credibility of the women who came forward — [Moore] is claiming this is fake news,” Woodland said. “Well if it’s fake news, why don’t we look at the women. We have four women who don’t know each other, four women who never met each other, one of whom admits to being a long-standing Republican. Where would they come up with this story? They would be pushed then to come with this story a month before an election?”

Hannity, clearly shaken by the pushback, tried to shift the focus back to “all of these last-minute allegations,” wondering, “Do they not have to be suspect?”

He then called on Jarett, whose condemnation of Moore was even more powerful than the other two guests. Referring to Hannity’s interview of Moore, Jarett said, “I found his answers to be unconvincing and implausible, is entire story to be, in a word, unbelievable — which means he’s lying.”

“He’s not telling the truth,” he continued. “And on that basis, I think, he should step aside.

“Look — you caught him in a glaring contradiction,” Jarett told Hannity. “You asked him, ‘As a 32-year-old man did you date 17 and 18-year-olds.’ He said, ‘If I did, I’m not going to dispute anything.’ Later when you asked him the second time, he said, ‘If I did, I don’t remember.’ You asked him a third time and he said, ‘Absolutely not.’ Now, that is at best inconsistency, at worst a contradiction. And jurors are told — there’s a standard jury instruction, the judge reads it to them: ‘If you find that a witness is lying in one part of their story, you may conclude the witness is lying about everything.’ And that’s what I felt about Judge Roy Moore today.”

Watch the full segment in the video below:

Featured image via screen grab

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.