Sean Hannity has conducted a sit-down interview with Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where Assange has been living for the past five years. This interview marks Assange’s first face-to-face appearance on a cable news show, and the first part of the interview is set to air on Fox New Channel’s Hannity on December 3 at 10 p.m. EST/7 p.m. PST.
In teaser excerpts that have been shown, Julian Assange once again reiterates the fact that the leaked emails of John Podesta were not the work of Russian hackers, as reported by Fox News.
“We can say, we have said, repeatedly that over the last two months that our source is not the Russian government and it is not a state party.”
Last week, Obama decided to expel 29 Russian diplomats from the United States in response to to the alleged cyberattacks, although the Guardian has listed this amount as 35. Assange explained to Hannity that the WikiLeaks source for these emails wasn’t Russia or a state party. Julian also finds it strange that WikiLeaks was never mentioned by the Obama administration.
“Our source is not a state party. But if we look at our most recent statement from the U.S. government, which is on the 29 of December, OK, we had five different branches of government, Treasury, DHS, FBI, White House presenting their accusations to underpin Obama’s throwing out 29 Russian diplomats. What was missing from all of those statements? The word WikiLeaks. It’s very strange.”
Many Republicans have criticized the lack of evidence that the Obama administration had for its claims that Russia hacked into DNC emails and Julian Assange told Sean Hannity that Obama has been acting “like a lawyer” with his hacking allegations.
There are over 50,000 emails that reveal things such as Clinton aides speaking dismissively about Catholics and the fact that there was an official of the Democratic National Committee who provided Hillary Clinton with the 2016 presidential debate questions well in advance of the debates.
Julian Assange: Obama admin is trying to delegitimize Trump.
Tonight 10p ET: Watch Hannity’s exclusive interview w/ the @wikileaks founder pic.twitter.com/mw0MdCQLAU
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 3, 2017
When Julian Assange spoke with Sean Hannity, he also criticized the Obama administration for their “dramatic response” to claims of hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s emails, as the Washington Examiner notes. Assange told Hannity that Obama is “trying to say that President-elect Trump is not a legitimate president.”
Julian Assange told Sean Hannity that President Obama has not been completely honest with American citizens about the role of Russia and WikiLeaks in the leaked emails of the DNC.
“He doesn’t say, from the statements that I have read, that Russia was trying to influence the election for Donald Trump.”
When Hannity asked Assange whether he felt that leaked DNC emails affected the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Julian said that it would be impossible to really know.
“Who knows, it’s impossible to tell. But if it did, the accusation is that the true statements of Hillary Clinton and her campaign manager, John Podesta, and the DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz, their true statements is what changed the election.”
Julian Assange had previously said in November that while WikiLeaks as a rule gives no information about their sources, they will take a stand if untrue claims about their organization and work are made.
“Saying nothing leads to a vacuum into which false claims about our sources can be projected. We tolerate such claims until they are used to distract from the publication.”
Sean Hannity has changed his mind about Julian Assange over the years, and Variety describes how Hannity was once a vocal critic of WikiLeaks.
In a satellite interview with Fox News in September, Sean told Julian, “Part of me, in the beginning, was conflicted about you.”
However, in his last radio show interview with Julian Assange in December, Sean Hannity thanked Assange and said, “You’ve done us a favor.”
[Featured Image by Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Images]
