Sean Hannity[1] joined President Trump[2] on Friday in urging federal authorities to identify the author of the anonymously written op-ed responsible for rocking the White House this week, calling their conduct a crime worthy of being investigated by the U.S. Secret Service[3].
Discussing the opinion column during his Fox News program, “Hannity[4],” the conservative commentator and adamant Trump[5] supporter urged the agency responsible for protecting the president to find its author for the sake of national security.
“This is a clear and present danger to the country,” said Mr. Hannity[6]. “That is beyond unacceptable. It’s like a soft coup aided and abetted by the corrupt media in this country.”
Published by The New York Times on Wednesday and attributed to an unnamed senior official, the op-ed claimed of an existence of a “resistance inside the Trump administration,” spurring dozens of denials and reportedly outraging the president.
“Does this so-called senior official have a security clearance? Access to top-secret information? Sources? Methods? And they’re potentially compromised?” Mr. Hannity[7] asked.
“Ultimately this is an attack on the presidency and the country. The country can get hurt in this process,” he added. “President Trump[8] and the Secret Service[9] now must do everything in their power to dismantle the deep state and find out whoever this is.”
Indeed, Mr. Trump[10] said earlier Friday that he believes his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, “should be investigating who the author of this piece was, because I really believe it’s national security.”
“Number one, the Times should never have done that, because really what they’ve done is virtually, you know, it’s treason, you could call it a lot of things,” Mr. Trump[11] said previously.
Mr. Trump[12] has become “obsessed” with identifying the source of the op-ed, CNN reported Friday.
Neither the Justice Department nor
Secret Service[13] immediately returned messages sent over the weekend seeking comment. A Justice Department spokesperson previously declined to confirm or deny the existence of any investigation, The New York Times reported Friday. Mr. Hannity[14] has served as one of the Mr. Trump[15]’s most fervent defenders on cable television and has previously accused Democrats and so-called “deep state” operatives of attempting to remove him from office.Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, a 2016
Trump[16] campaign surrogate, previously said that appearing on “Hannity[17]” was among the “most effective ways of communicating” with the president.“Occasionally, we’d talk on ...
Sean[18]’s show knowing Trump[19] was watching,” Mr. Gingrich said last year.