On Friday, President Obama told a town hall audience in Strasbourg, France, that America’s tendency to dismiss Europe — as well as Europe’s tendency to blame America for every problem — had to end. “On both sides of the Atlantic, these attitudes have become all too common. They are not wise. They do not represent the truth,” Obama said.
That evening, Fox News’s Sean Hannity truncated Obama’s speech, cutting out Obama’s criticism of Europe’s anti-Americanism. Hannity was apoplectic that Obama would “blame America first,” declaring the president was just like the Dixie Chicks. What’s more, he insisted, the speech was proof of Obama’s “deep resentment” of America:
HANNITY: You know, I’m going to — I resent this. When you consider…all we have done just in the last century alone to save Europe from themselves. I resent this. I think it’s outrageous, the media’s ignored it. But don’t you think this is like the Dixie Chicks? […]
HANNITY: But didn’t we see all of this in the campaign? As I was bringing up — didn’t Reverend Wright give us a little insight into his thought process? Didn’t, you know, Michelle Obama, America is a downright mean country. … But I’m thinking, didn’t we get some insight? When you sit on a board and give speeches with Bill Ayers, didn’t this — Do you think he harbors deep resentment that he just hides? Because I believe he does.
Watch it:
In 2003, the Dixie Chicks caused a firestorm when they told a London audience that they did not support the Iraq war and that they were “ashamed” George Bush was from Texas, like them. At the time, Hannity was outraged, slamming them for going to “foreign soil” and “taking a shot not only at the president, at their country as well.”