CNN media reporter Brian Stelter says some top conservative commentators may want Hillary Clinton dead.
Stelter told PBS’s “Charlie Rose” on Wednesday night that some conservative media figures covering Clinton’s recent health bout of pneumonia are in a “truly deplorable basket. Sean Hannity fits into it, so does Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones and others. These are people who bring up rumors and innuendo about Clinton’s health, and have been doing it for years.”
{mosads}”I’m not saying Hannity or Limbaugh fit into these necessarily,” Stelter continued, “but they — some of these figures want her to be sick. They want her to be dying. They want her to be on her death bed.”
Clinton suffered a health incident Sunday at a Sept. 11 memorial event and seemed to faint as she tried to get into a van. After bystander video of the incident surfaced, her campaign acknowledged that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia two days earlier.
Limbaugh slammed Stelter’s comments on his radio show Thursday.
“You’re specifically alleging, Brian, we want her to be sick. … You really need to research the transcripts of this program,” Limbaugh said.
“If you do, you will find that I am the one person who started expressing concern for Mrs. Clinton in a number of areas. The most recent time when she had that four-minute coughing spasm, it was I who asked, ‘How could her staff do that to her and not send somebody out to rescue her?’ ‘Who left her out to dry in that episode?’ “
A review of transcripts by The Hill show Limbaugh did voice those concerns verbatim in the way Limbaugh described Thursday.
The 65-year-old radio host then went on to defend Hannity, a Fox News fixture.
“I know Sean Hannity, he doesn’t want anyone to die. What is this? This is — it’s bottom of the barrel stuff,” Limbaugh said.
“Stelter doesn’t really know what to say, he doesn’t really know how to categorize what I think or Hannity. ‘Hillary’s right, they want her to die. They want to see her on her deathbed. They want her to get sick.’ “
“How do you know that? Limabugh asked. “And just make a blanket statement like this?”
Limbaugh ended the segment laying out his basis for criticizing Clinton on his radio program.
“My problem with Hillary Clinton has to do with what she believes,” he said. “My problem with Hillary Clinton has to be totally and 100 percent policy-related.”
Hannity responded Thursday afternoon on his radio program as well.
“How do I get an apology from CNN? he asked. “Should I — I would love to sue them for slander when they say, ‘Oh he wants Hillary on her deathbed and dead,’ when I said just the opposite.
“I know it’s hard to sue when you’re a public figure, pretty much people can call you anything, and I’ve been called pretty much everything,” Hannity said.
“But I’m thinking of suing them. Maybe I’ll get [prominent lawyer] David Boies, my buddy, to do it.”
The Hill has reached out CNN for comment.