Observe how dishonest Hannity is even when he’s not talking about Benghazi, Seth Rich or the Russia investigation. More than perhaps any other major political figure in recent U.S. history, Trump sends out his message unfiltered. He does it via Twitter, he does it when he banters with the media before going on trips and he does it at his rallies in arenas nationwide.

There’s nothing this country needs less, in fact, than Trump “in your own words at length.”

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Such are the excuses, however, when a cable-news host allows a politician to essentially guest-host his show, as Hannity did Thursday night. We won’t plow through all the lowlights, other than to note that Trump bashed the media, as usual, while also commending the New York Times for writing about the shortcomings of the controversial Russia dossier compiled by former British intelligence official Christopher Steele. “But why didn’t they mention in the Mueller Report all of the horrible things that we found out about the other side, including the fake dossier, the fake dossier which even the New York Times now says it was fake, which again I respect that they came out and said it,” said Trump. The “fake news” people really are awful until they write something that buttresses your argument, at which point it’s important to cite them authoritatively.

By the count of the Erik Wemple Blog — based on a Nexis transcript of the Hannity-Trump discussion — the president’s responses averaged just south of 200 words — a luxury for any interviewee. Consider that news anchors average between 150 and 175 words per minute, which means Trump’s average response to Hannity’s “questions” clocked in at a pace that effected something of a cross between Interview Trump and Campaign Rally Trump.

At one stultifying point, Hannity riffed about all the Democrats lining up to challenge Trump, including former vice president Joe Biden. Showing his journalistic chops, Hannity said, “Generally, your thoughts on him, his entry into the race.” Trump’s response droned on for an absurd 634 words — 3 minutes and 20 seconds — snaking from Biden’s allegedly low brain power to health care to, well, this: “We’re ordering great, great ships and boats and aircraft carriers, and they’re all being built in the United States.” And beyond. (See video below, starting at 23:59.)

For context, consider the time that former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly interviewed President Barack Obama in advance of the Super Bowl in February 2014. According to a Nexis transcript of a portion of the interview that later aired on “The O’Reilly Factor,” Obama averaged about 34 words per response. No monologues allowed, even for a president who was famous for filibustering reporters.

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The current president slid into his guest-hosting gig with little trouble. Surely the duties were as familiar to him as they could possibly be: He spends his spare time, after all, watching “Hannity” and then, later, tweeting all that he learned from the country’s most sycophantic media figure.

We’ll credit Hannity, however, with at least one honest and responsible statement, already mentioned above. “All right, Mr. President you’ve been very generous once again with your time,” said the host. No question there: This is a president with endless patience for consuming and producing misinformation. Guest-hosting “Hannity” allowed him to do both at the same time.