“In retrospect, I probably would have done things a little differently,” Trump Jr. admitted to Hannity, in what would turn out to be the money quote of the interview. “Again, this is before the Russia mania. This is before they were building it up in the press. For me, this was opposition research.” Sure, Hannity managed to ask some newsworthy questions, but Trump Jr. got what he came for: A sympathetic interviewer whose guiding imperative appeared to be to refrain from embarrassing Trump Jr.

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Everyone is repeating the Hannity’s name, just the way he likes it.

Knowing that the media would be tuned into his program on Tuesday night, Hannity addressed them directly with the message that they have “zero credibility.” In seeking to minimize the story over Trump Jr., he relied on … the mainstream media, including an NBC News interview with that Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya. He also shamed the media for ignoring “a real Russian collusion conspiracy — that’s the Uranium One deal,” referring to an investigative story broken by … the New York Times. Also on Hannity’s radar was a January 2017 article exploring the activities of a “Ukrainian-American operative who was consulting for the Democratic National Committee” and working with “top officials in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington in an effort to expose ties between Trump, top campaign aide Paul Manafort and Russia.” That story, as Hannity noted, was laid out by Politico, a card-carrying member of the mainstream media. “Why haven’t you covered that story?” Hannity asked the media, citing Politico’s January 2017 reporting. Answer: Clinton is not the president of the United States.

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Donald Trump Sr. is, and it’s all such a great romp for Hannity. Considering that the media and various instrumentalities — a special counsel and congressional committees — will be investigating the possibility of Trump campaign collusion with Russia for months and months, scenarios like Tuesday’s are likely to play out again: A Trumpite gets some negative press; the media wants answers; interview requests come piling in; and Hannity ends up with the prize. And as we all know, he has put in the work to get to this place, providing advice to the Trump campaign, participating in an ad for it, helping to pay certain travel costs, forsaking any sense of decency by pumping up a conspiracy about the slaying of DNC aide a year ago and providing nightly, vehement defense for all things Trump.