Sean Hannity speaking at the 2016 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
Some of Fox News host Sean Hannity’s own viewers have turned on him over his interview with Katie Zacharia. Zacharia’s run as White House press secretary ended Friday, less than a week after it started.
Hannity questioned Zacharia on his show shortly before she was pushed out. Some of President Donald Trump’s supporters now say he helped bring her down.
“Hannity didn’t help. He put Katie Zacharia on the hot seat and kept pressing,” wrote Myrna, a commentator whose X profile reads “Proud MAGA.” “Woman-hating or just pandering to the men in the audience? Relentless. Bully.”
Conservative radio host Michael Savage asked whether Fox’s top host went after Zacharia on purpose.
“WHY WAS HANNITY USED AS THE HATCHET MAN TO DESTROY POOR ZACHARIA? OR, WAS THIS PERSONAL?” Savage wrote.
Hans Mahncke, who founded the Counterlawfare Institute and wrote a book on the Russia investigation, said that Hannity’s real loyalty is to his own media empire.
“Hannity is, above all, an empire builder,” Mahncke wrote. “The media empire he has built for himself, and particularly his position within it, is ultimately what guides his decisions.”
On Friday, a senior White House official told Fox News that Zacharia was “transitioning out” of the job. Trump denied firing her. “No no. I want her to have a good life,” he told reporters. “She’s been brutalized by the media.”
Hannity then shared a story on X headlined, “Trump Says Zacharia May Not Be Right for the Job.”
Diane Piette is a Florida attorney and former broadcaster. She told Hannity she was finished with him.
“Lost ALL respect for you Hannity. What you did to Katie Zacharia was disgusting and unprofessional,” Piette wrote. “Have watched you for more than a decade. No more.”
George Santos, the Republican former congressman who was expelled from the House in 2023, went further. He asked any of his followers who watch Hannity to unfollow him.
“The man is a pig, and I loath him,” Santos wrote. “I have more respect for extremist that follow Bernie Sanders than conservatives who listened to Sean Hannity’s BULL S---!”
Santos also said he’d “jump to serve POTUS as press secretary in a heart beat.”
Other Trump supporters piled on in replies.
“I quit Hannity 10 years ago,” wrote an X user whose profile says “MAGA baby!”
Courtney Fosnight, who calls herself a “MAGA Republican,” wrote that Hannity has “become Oprah.”
“So self obsessed and unwilling to hear his guest or even let them speak that he just repulses your soul,” she added.
“Sean lost me years ago,” wrote another user, who describes himself as a conservative, gun-owning libertarian.
Read this. You don’t have to agree with the specific conclusions about Hannity and Katie Zacharia to recognize that we’re not dealing with an honest broker here.Hannity is, above all, an empire builder. The media empire he has built for himself, and particularly his position within it, is ultimately what guides his decisions. The same is true of Tucker Carlson, even if his empire has taken a different direction. In both cases, the empire always comes first.And so it goes with all major media personalities, including many, if not most, of the big podcasters. Their positions, alliances, and even their principles are ultimately subordinate to the empires they have built and are determined to preserve.In fact, I can think of only one big media personality who built an empire but never allowed that empire to dictate what he believed, said, or did. And that was Rush Limbaugh.
— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) October 17, 2026
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