As we get ready for the impeachment hearings set to begin Wednesday morning, a subset issue I'll be keeping in mind is the role of Sean Hannity in Trump’s bribery/extortion scheme with Ukraine. As CNN host Brian Stelter put it yesterday, the testimony we have seen so far has highlighted Hannity’s role as one of Trump’s “shadow foreign policy advisers.”

On yesterday’s Reliable Sources, Stelter and his panel discussed how the impeachment hearings may play in the right-wing media. Guest Tara Dowdell, a Democratic political and business strategist, predicted that the right-wing media will “ramp up” its aggression and become “more robust, more comprehensive” in its coverage.

In other words, we can expect more attacks, more deflections and more whining – especially from Hannity. “Sean Hannity is functioning as a de facto advisor, but he's also functioning as a chief spokesperson for the Trump administration,” Dowdell continued. “Anytime Trump has an issue with something, Sean Hannity goes on the attack.” She noted that Hannity even attacked Fox News’ own polling after its results were unfavorable to Trump.

But Hannity has already been implicated as a player in the scandal, as we noted last week. According to Stelter, Hannity has been named “more than a dozen times” in just one transcript.

Shareblue editor and SiriusXM radio host Jess McIntosh highlighted what’s so problematic about that.

I hope more will come out about this during the hearings.

Published with permission of NewsHounds.us