Fox News host Sean Hannity twice suggested on Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to imitate former U.S. President Donald Trump with his massive pro-war rally at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium.
“It looks like Vladimir Putin is channeling his inner Donald Trump,” Hannity, who once joined Trump onstage at a campaign event, first said on his radio show.
“He had a what looked like, it almost looked like ‘The Big House’ in Michigan. Their football stadium, I think, holds 110,000 people,” Hannity said of Putin’s huge flag-waving rally in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“By the way, if you didn’t show up you probably got in trouble,” Hannity noted. “My only guess, I’m sure many people showed up just out of fear. That’s what authoritarianism is all about, and we should know that by now.”
Listen to the audio here:
Later, on his prime-time Fox News show, Hannity said the “manufactured” rally was Putin’s “best attempt to look like Donald Trump.” He also called Putin a “murderous thug” and said his war on Ukraine had become a “humiliating disaster.” Russians were “required to attend” the event,” he said, “unlike a Trump rally.”
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Hannity has previously called for Putin had to be removed “by whatever means necessary,” but also on Friday he repeated a Kremlin statement questioning President Joe Biden’s health.
“Now, like I’ve been saying, Biden’s weakness on the world stage, it is emboldening bad actors all across the globe,” Hannity said after reading the Russian talking point word for word. Biden and Democrats had “abandoned the peace-through-strength strategy that was successful” under Trump and Ronald Reagan, the pro-Trump flack added.