There was a moment in Sean Hannity's interview tonight with Roseanne Barr when the two seemed like old friends. In defending her racist tweet—in which she called former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett an ape—Barr asked Hannity if he knew what it was like to be surrounded by people who think Trump is the worst thing that has happened to this country.
Every day, he replied—likely the one time in his life Hannity has said something even resembling the truth. "There are plenty of people who disagree with every word I say," he says. There they were: just two chummy racists, reveling in the masses of people they've offended, disgraced, and marginalized.
It was a rambling, unnecessary, and deeply pandering interview during which Hannity lobbed softball questions at Roseanne that are begged her to take the opportunity to redeem herself.
But she didn't.
At one point, Hannity gave her the chance to speak directly to Jarrett. This is what Barr had to say:
Let's talk about it. Let's really turn this into a teachable moment. We need to talk about race and everything that's connected to it. Including someone who looks like me—her skin tone looks like mine—I didn't know she was african american. I thought she was from Iran. And how she and Barack Obama hung out. They don't like the idea of American exceptionalism. Okay that's fine. That's kind of a globalist way of thinking...
Wait ... what?
Here was Hannity handing Barr an opportunity to look good, and this is what she had to say?
And her core defense of the tweet is that it was not racial, it was political—a distinction that neither explains nor excuses what she said:
"The first thing was shock when they said it was racial when it was supposed to be political. Everyone started saying I was racist, which is the worst thing you can say to a jew especially one who grew up with to always fight extremism ... I took a vow with my god that I would always fight extremism."
By the end of the interview, Hannity was giving her ideas for a speaking tour and a stand-up comedy tour. And it's so clear of what the intentions of this interview are: to initiate Roseanne's eventual comeback as one of the few mainstream Trump-supporting entertainers, of which the right is desperate for.
The saddest part about all of this is that Hannity won. He got the ratings from scoring the first interview with Roseanne since her public disgrace, and he pandered to his core audience. And in the eyes of most Hannity viewers, Barr is probably forgiven tonight—if not applauded.
Matt Miller is a Brooklyn-based culture/lifestyle writer and music critic whose work has appeared in Esquire, Forbes, The Denver Post, and documentaries.
