In a fight over Che Fever, I always bet on the least Marxist contender in the debate. Needless to say, that distinction was easy to make in this clip from Fox News’ Hannity.
Last night, Sean Hannity got Taylor Lorenz to debate … something. Lorenz thought she showed up to condemn violence, but only in health-care policy. Hannity wanted her to answer for her assessment of back-shooting coward Luigi Mangione as “a morally good man.” The disconnect on subject matter began right from the beginning and didn’t stop even after the bell:
Full disclosure: I read the Fox News transcript (provided by email) before viewing the clip above. After reading the transcript, I only reluctantly clicked the play button. Kudos to Hannity for attempting to pin down Lorenz on her Che Fever, but it proves as possible as nailing Jell-O to a wall.
If you want to get the gist of this 12-minute segment, it pretty much boils down to this:
LORENZ: I know exactly what I said. I — again, I’m attempting to right now so I’d ask you to please give the space and try to listen here. As I said once again, never did I say I felt joy that this man died. I said again that I felt joy that millions of Americans are — or millions of really wealthy Americans and privileged Americans are forcing — or forced to wake up to the reality that nearly 70,000 Americans die each year due to lack of health insurance. I do feel joyful —
HANNITY: OK, you’re back to the healthcare debate. Why would any human being with a conscience and soul be joyful over an assassination of any person, why would anybody be joyful over that?
LORENZ: No one — well, actually, that’s a good question. Why don’t I explain?
HANNITY: It’s a great question.
LORENZ: So the other clip — so the other clip that you played is not me saying my own beliefs. I have quite different beliefs from that . What I’m describing and if you watch the full segment, not just the clip, you’ll see that I’m describing the mentality of these fan girls that show up outside Luigi’s court and show up outside his jail cell.
Those girls are not me, okay? We have very separate belief systems, but I was describing how they believe. And now, let me explain to you why people in America feel this way. People in America feel this way and they feel outraged because again every penny of the $22 billion in profit made by UnitedHealth was made at the expense and suffering of others. And that is violence.
Lather, rinse, repeat. The only part that readers might miss from the transcript is Lorenz’ Valley Girl delivery. Hannity spends ten-plus minutes trying to get Lorenz to admit to “putting a smiley face on assassinations,” and Lorenz spends the time trying to debate health-care policy.
Actually, strike that. Lorenz doesn’t even debate health-care policy. She just recites grievances without discussing actual policy solutions. Lorenz offers stupid propositions such as that the “health care system is violence,” while avoiding entirely the actual violence that Mangione committed in about the most cowardly fashion possible.
Hannity does call her out on that at one point, too:
HANNITY: Like hold on and seems like he’s a morally good man. If you want to have legitimate criticism, you could write your an intelligent piece saying here is what’s wrong with America’s health care system, like for example, I want health care savings accounts, I would like to see more of the use of telemedicine, I believe in health care cooperatives, I know one that works. Josh Umber, Atlas MD, Average Person, 24-hour concierge care, 50 bucks a month, there are better ways to do it. That’s a legitimate debate. But that’s not how you’re saying it. You’re saying it in ways that are sympathetic to the people that are taking action —
LORENZ: And describing the belief system —
HANNITY: — handsome, good looking, this is why people are happy and joyful.
LORENZ: I’m describing the belief system of his supporters, Sean.
Lorenz isn’t debating. She’s attempting to hijack the topic — and it’s clear why, too. Lorenz got caught fangirling over a backshooting coward while on CNN and now she wants to change that subject as fast as possible. She’s trying to claim that all she did was report on what other women thought, but Hannity pre-empted that by playing the clip before Lorenz joined him on air. Just to remind everyone, these were Lorenz’ words:
Here’s this man who, who’s a revolutionary, who’s famous, who’s handsome, who’s young, who’s smart — he’s a person that seems like a morally good man, which is hard to find[.]
That’s why whenever Hannity brings up Mangione’s victim Brian Thompson, a husband and father, Lorenz shifts to her “70,000” number. It happens so often, one has to wonder whether Lorenz had a script in front of her to remind her what to say. The nadir of these exchanges came when Lorenz brought up Hamas for some reason:
HANNITY: I’m not asking you to condemn that system. Do you condemn — Taylor, do you condemn people that call for assassination?
LORENZ: Gosh, you’re going to ask if I condemn Hamas, next. This is crazy.
Well … do you? Despite given many opportunities, Lorenz never does explicitly condemn those who call for assassinations in politics, let alone the oh so dreamy assassin at hand. Given that Lorenz wants to contextualize (in other words, rationalize) political terrorism in the health-care debate, maybe we should see whether Lorenz will contextualize mass slaughter of Jews in Israel, too.
Kudos to Hannity for getting Lorenz to agree to an interview. Too bad Lorenz was more interested in interviewing herself.
