"I think it’s a good service to my audience," Sean Hannity says of Trump's frequent appearances on his show. | Getty Hannity: I'm not Trump's foil

Sean Hannity wants to make one thing clear: He’s not propping up Donald Trump.

The conservative media host shot down a recent ThinkProgress story claiming that he interviewed Donald Trump more than 40 times without making news, amplifying remarks that he favors Trump over other Republican presidential candidates.


“Trump has appeared on Hannity an astonishing 41 times since he announced his campaign last June, often for the entire hour,” the piece stated, calculating that the Republican front-runner appeared on Hannity’s show approximately once a week.

“Hannity’s role is less of an interviewer than a member of Trump’s campaign staff,” the site observed.

On Wednesday, Hannity fired back.

“I’m not a journalist, I’m a talk show host,” he defended. “I’ve decided that I’m just going to remain neutral and give you access to the candidates because no one else is doing it. I think it’s a good service to my audience.”

Hannity took issue with the Center for American Progress, which owns the news website and was founded by John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman and former President Bill Clinton’s White House chief of staff.

“The site is run by John Podesta. John Podesta is a hack for Hillary Clinton,” he said. “And, literally, they cherry-picked questions to make me look as bad as possible.”

“Podesta doesn’t like that I’m going to be out there leading the charge — the stop Hillary express as I have said once before — so he does a hit piece on me to make me look as bad as he possibly can.”

But progressive media outlets are not solely to blame, he said, pointing to conservative websites such as RedState and Breitbart News, which he said favor Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, respectively.

“Red State, which is pro-Cruz, which I have no problem with, they go out there and they don’t do any research, they just cut and paste the cherry-picked questions that Podesta’s people put up and act like they’re writing news,” he went on. “That’s just pathetic.”

Ultimately, he said, while he remains neutral for now, he will support Trump or Cruz if either secures the Republican nomination.