‘Hannity’ Panel Tackles Anti-Trump Issue — ‘Where Was National Review’ on GOP Broken Promises of 2014?

Stephen Hayes, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Jeanine Pirro debated National Review’s article series about Donald Trump on Friday’s edition of the Fox News Channel’s “Hannity.”

Pirro said, “This hit by the National Review is something that is totally inconsistent with what the people want.” She also asked, “Did they do it to Mitt Romney, the guy who chartered ObamaCare?

Hannity answered, “They did it to Newt Gingrich, the solid conservative that brought Republicans into power for the first time in 40 years.”

Guilfoyle added, “I was a little disappointed and surprised. I want to see a Republican in the White House, and I want someone who’s going to win. And I don’t think it’s right, at this point, to be cannibalizing one another.”

Hannity asked Hayes, “Where was National Review when in fact the Republicans were going back on their promise against repealing and replacing ObamaCare and using the power of the purse, or holding up the mantle of challenging a sitting president and stopping executive amnesty, which was the Republican promise in 2014?”

Hayes answered, “National Review has been leading the fight in many ways, with the Weekly Standard and others, challenging the Washington establishment and the crony capitalists here in Washington. … It’s interesting for me to see people cast National Review and these contributors as part of the Washington conservative establishment. It’s preposterous. I mean, it includes authors like Erick Erickson, like Brent Bozell. I mean, nobody’s calling these people establishment.”

Midway through, Hannity said that National Review didn’t do a special edition for any of the things he’d mentioned, to which Hayes countered that they thought Trump’s ascendancy was worth the special edition.

Pirro said, “[T]his smacks of the establishment pushing back on the Republican Party, Donald Trump is the favorite of Republicans, and for them to come out and say if he gets elected, he’s going to trample conservative ideals on behalf of populism, as needless and crude as Donald. Are they saying that we’re crude, that we don’t know what we need? It’s almost like Obama saying, I know what’s good for you. Don’t tell us what’s good for us. We know what’s good for us.”

Hayes responded, “It’s an opinion magazine. they have opinions. they back them up. i think they argued quite persuasively that Donald Trump isn’t a conservative, hasn’t been a conservative, and would do damage to the conservative movement. people are perfectly free to disagree with them and make arguments, but the implication that it is somehow improper for a magazine of opinion to make these arguments is preposterous.”

Hannity also said that some of William F. Buckley Jr.’s statements “were not exactly peace loving moments of civility.

Hayes said, “Politics can be a very tough sport, and people who enter this business, either as a candidate or on the opinion side should be well equipped to take arrows and slings and everything else. Having said that, I do think that Donald Trump is a little different. I do think that, if you look at the kinds of arguments he’s made, whether mocking Carly Fiorina’s face or denigrating John McCain for his war heroism, making fun of a disabled reporter, all of those –.”

Hannity then stated, “Ted Cruz hasn’t done that, and the same people you mentioned, a lot of which hate Ted Cruz.” Hayes responded, “if people have questions or concerns about his character or temperament, whatever word you want to use, I think it’s fine for people to have those, and to express those. I’m a little surprised that more conservatives who support Trump don’t share those concerns, honestly.

Pirro then said, “The establishment is scared. Donald Trump is beholden to no one. The American electorate knows it, the Republicans know it. and the fact that there aren’t these attacks against Ted Cruz, pro-amnesty, now he’s against it.”

Guilfoyle then argued, “I just feel like the party should come together at a certain point. If they’re going to do this, maybe do it some time early. This seems to me to be a little bit pro-Cruz in terms of doing this to maybe shave points off of Donald Trump going into Iowa with an opinion magazine.”

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