Hannity knocks ‘dumb’ Mulvaney after White House press conference

Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday knocked White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney as “dumb” and “idiotic” after he indicated the Trump administration held up military aid to Ukraine in efforts to urge the country to investigate a conspiracy theory related to interference in the 2016 election.

“What is Mulvaney even talking about? I just think he’s dumb, I really do. I don’t even think he knows what he’s talking about. That’s my take on it,” Hannity said during his radio show.

Hannity added that the transcript of President Trump’s call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky — which, in part, has spurred House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry over the president’s contacts with Ukraine and efforts to encourage the country to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden — exonerates Trump.

“This is why, I think, some of these people are so stupid. Read the transcript,” he said. “We don’t need a non-whistleblower whistleblower. You don’t need a chief of staff’s idiotic interpretation of things when the president and the president of Ukraine and everybody else can read it all themselves. That’s what’s amazing.”{mosads}

Hannity’s comments come after Mulvaney earlier Thursday told reporters at the White House that the Ukraine aid was withheld because Trump administration officials wanted Kiev to probe unsubstantiated election interference allegations linking the country to a Democratic National Committee (DNC) server.

“The look back to what happened in 2016 certainly was part of the things that he was worried about in corruption with that nation. And that is absolutely appropriate,” Mulvaney said.

And when asked if what he was describing was a quid pro quo — where funding is withheld unless there was an investigation into the DNC server — Mulvaney said, “We do that all the time with foreign policy.”

Hours later, Mulvaney walked back his comments, saying the flow of security assistance to Ukraine was not conditioned on the country probing the election interference theory and accusing the media of “misconstruing” what he had said.

“Let me be clear, there was absolutely no quid pro quo between Ukrainian military aid and any investigation into the 2016 election,” Mulvaney said. “The president never told me to withhold any money until the Ukrainians did anything related to the server.”