Fox News host Sean Hannity said of Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore: "Today we got the answers to the questions that we asked." | Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images Hannity punts after Moore ultimatum: Voters can make 'informed decision'

After a provocative call Tuesday night for Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore to address looming allegations of sexual assault of minors or drop out of the December race, Fox News host Sean Hannity backed off the ultimatum.

Instead, he ended his Wednesday show by reading a letter to him from Moore and with a call to Alabama voters to make their own "informed decision" at the polls.


Hannity had seemed to take a harder line on Tuesday, when he altered his original position insinuating that Moore's accusers could by lying. He ended Tuesday's show with a firm statement that Moore should explain himself or drop out of the race.

Wednesday evening's show began under a chryon, "Day of reckoning for the Clintons." Hannity spent much of the show focused on past scandals involving former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Clips of interviews with multiple women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault and unwanted sexual advances since the 1990s filled the first 20 minutes of Hannity's show. Other segments included Hannity and guests calling on the Clintons to seize the moment to "reverse" their "mistake" in the midst of accusations of sexual assault and harassment plaguing the country.

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Hannity drew a comparison between Moore and Clinton, arguing that if accusations against Moore undermine his fitness to run for the Senate, the same should have held for Hillary Clinton given her role in "smearing" the women who accused her husband of sexual assault.

Hannity's guests were less hesitant about Moore.

"Your interview with him was incriminating, becuase he contradicted himself three times," Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett said. "You asked him about dating teenage girls. At first he said 'I don't dispute it,' then he said 'I don't remember it,' then he said 'I adamantly deny it.' It can't be all three."

"If some of these allegations are true, it is mind-numbing," Hannity said.

He added, "These allegations are beyond disturbing, and serious. I have a 16-year-old daughter."

After hyping his "decision" on Moore, Hannity recounted his own process of reporting the allegations and applauded himself for asking Moore tough questions and refraining from making a snap decision. Then he read an open letter that Moore wrote to him Wednesday continuing to deny the allegations and bringing into question the validity of a signature bearing his name in the 1977 high school yearbook of Beverly Young Nelson, a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her at age 16.

"Today we got the answers to the questions that we asked," Hannity said.

Those "answers," he said, came in the form of statements made Wednesday by the Moore campaign during a press conference in which attorney Phillip L. Jauregui told reporters that the campaign was consulting with handwriting analysis experts to determine the validity of the signature in Nelson's yearbook.

"The people of Alabama, they need to know the truth," Hannity said. "And they've got to have all the facts that they need. And that means that the Alabama voters can make an educated, informed, inclusive decision for their state when the go to the polls."

"And if that means — whatever it means, to get to the truth, if it means more time — I believe the governor according to Gregg Jarrett has the ability to make that decision," Hannity continued, referring to the possibility of delaying the election.

"Now, we have told you everyone's point of view. The accusers continue to have an open invitation to come on this show and share their story."

Seven women have now come forward accusing Moore of sexually assaulting them or pursuing them inappropriately as teenagers. At the time of those allegations, Moore would have been over 30, serving as the district attorney for Etowah County.

CORRECTION: Beverly Young Nelson claimed she was assaulted at age 16. An earlier version of this story had the age wrong.