Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes-Norton (D-DC) argued over the Ferguson decision on Thursday night.
The interview began with Hannity asking if Holmes-Norton if she had read the evidence in the Ferguson case, to which she responded “I did not and that is not a concern,” which Hannity seemed shocked by. She continued “for me, out of this tragedy, now Eric Garner has come a much larger concern and a much larger picture.”
Hannity then stated “the reason that Michael Brown was stopped was because police had a report of a robbery and Michael Brown fit the description and he turned out to be the guy…[Wilson testified before the grand jury that he initially told Brown to get out of the street and after that realized he matched the description of the suspect from the robbery (pg. 209)] “that was in the evidence you say you won’t take the time to read. Why?” She responded “my view is that wherever you stand on whether it’s racism, whether who struck John, we are losing the big picture, and the big picture and the reason I think young people are in the streets is because of the stops on the street for people who happen to be black so often that it has become routine. Holmes-Norton added that she wanted to start dialogue on police-community relations and “the evidence, that’s for you, that’s for the pundits, that’s not where I am.”
The two then grappled, with Holmes-Norton accusing Hannity of foisting opinions she did not hold onto her and Hannity trying to ask about the “hands up, don’t shoot” gesture on the House floor. Hannity then asked about eyewitness testimony “that would render the narrative ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ a lie.” Holmes-Norton fired back “is your problem that you couldn’t get any of them [other members of the Congressional Black Caucus] to come on to explain themselves? because I didn’t do any of that and I didn’t say any of that.”
Hannity attempted to shift by asking if she spoke out against what other CBC members had said, with Holmes-Norton declaring “there was conflicting testimony,” and re-iterating that she was talking about a broader issue.
Hannity then asked what he said would be the last question, if not robbing stores and charging cops was a lesson that should be learned, to which Holmes-Norton said “that lesson gets taught every day,” and again urged a conversation on police-community relations.
The interview appeared to be ready to end, until Hannity quipped “I hope you’ll take the time to read evidence in the case before you talk about a case, I think it would be helpful,” Holmes-Norton rebutted “I haven’t talked about the case, I’ve talked about what we should do going forward, not about the case.” The two then angrily tussled over whether her comments were about the Ferguson case.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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