CNN's Brian Stelter critiqued Fox News hosts Sean Hannity (above) and Bill O'Reilly for not challenging the GOP nominee's claim that this election is rigged. | Getty Hannity, Stelter swap criticism over conspiracy theories

Several hours after CNN's "Reliable Sources" host Brian Stelter on Sunday released a video essay critiquing journalists who are "handing Trump the mic," Sean Hannity and Donald Trump's campaign fired back.

In response, Stelter told POLITICO: "Hannity is conveniently ignoring the point of my commentary, which is that it's dangerous for a talk show host to promote conspiracy theories about election-rigging."


On his show, Stelter critiqued Fox News hosts Hannity and Bill O'Reilly for not challenging the GOP nominee's claim that the election is rigged. Showing segments from Hannity's show, Stelter criticized Hannity for being "conspiratorial" — a term Hannity also said about himself — about voter fraud in 2012, including Mitt Romney's failure to receive a single vote from 59 precincts in Philadelphia.

"Hey Brian check Philly enquirer after 2012. How many districts not a single Romney vote. Check Cleveland. Do u prep?" Hannity tweeted, referring to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The CNN host said Hannity was being irresponsible.

"Hannity should have asked more questions. Interviewers, even the ones that support the person they're interviewing, have an obligation to probe further and push back when a candidate says something dangerous," Stelter said in his segment. "And this is dangerous. Suggesting an election is going to be stolen, this is Third World dictatorship stuff."

Trump's campaign responded on Twitter to a claim Stelter tweeted about Trump being "the first presidential nominee in modern times to come out and tell voters that the election might be stolen."

"July 2007 #CrookedHillary testified in favor of the "Ballot Integrity Act" to stop hacking," Trump Rapid Response tweeted.



July 2007 #CrookedHillary testified in favor of the "Ballot Integrity Act" to stop hacking https://t.co/EvM8Wckj43 pic.twitter.com/KMojee2yhB — Trump Rapid Response (@TrumpRapid) August 7, 2016



The campaign also linked to legislation that was cosponsored by then-presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden that called for manual audits of election results and improved transparency and independence of testing laboratories. It also established a set of security standards for voting machines.

"Calling us unpatriotic? 59 districts not one Romney vote. So you are voting for the liar HRC. Did DNC hurt Bernie?" Hannity tweeted to Stelter.

"'Unreliable liberal sources.' Brian, answer a simple question. Is HRC a liar?" Hannity wrote.

Stelter responded to Hannity in a tweet.

"Watch the video. I answered your claim about Philly. There were precincts elsewhere without a single Obama vote. Rigged?" Stelter wrote.

The 2012 report by the Philadelphia Inquirer indicated that in 59 of the 1,687 voting divisions in Philadelphia, Romney did not draw a single vote. Those 59 districts were located in neighborhoods of West Philadelphia and North Philadelphia that were almost exclusively African-American. Overall, President Barack Obama drew 85 percent of the vote in the city.

During Stelter's segment, he pointed out that in Utah there were precincts in which Obama also did not receive a single vote. According to an article published by NBC Chicago, Romney won 14-0 in Millard County’s Flowell precinct, 17-0 in that county's Garrison precinct, and 14-0 in Sanpete County’s Mount Pleasant 3 Unincorporated precinct.

Hannity's feud with Stelter followed his battle last week with Bret Stephens, a conservative columnist for The Wall Street Journal who has been fiercely anti-Trump. Stephens called Hannity the "dumbest anchor" on Fox News; Hannity called Stephens a "dumbass."