Sean Hannity "Seems to Get Away With Whatever He Wants"
Sean Hannity is not likely to face much blowback from Fox News over his failure to disclose his relationship with President Trump's personal lawyer, said Michael Calderone, Politico's senior media reporter.
"He pretty much plays by his own rules at Fox," said Calderone in an interview Wednesday on Cheddar. "He's their top rated host, he's been there for decades, and he seems to get away with whatever he wants."
Hannity spends much of his 9 p.m. nightly show on Fox News defending Trump, railing against the special counsel's Russia investigation, and slamming the FBI for raiding the office and home of Michael Cohen, Trump's personal lawyer. Then came the [revelation](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/16/business/media/sean-hannity-michael-cohen-client.html) Monday that Hannity himself had sought legal advice from Cohen.
Though Hannity did not disclose his relationship with Cohen, the Fox host "seems to get away with whatever he wants," said Calderone.
The Politico reporter said he spoke with Hannity last year, during an advertiser boycott of Hannity's show when the TV host was aggressively pushing a conspiracy theory about the killing of a Democratic National Committee staffer, Seth Rich.
"Throughout all of that Sean Hannity was defiant," said Calderone. "He called me up and said 'I can say whatever I want, at Fox News, everyone there leaves me alone.'"
Hannity has acknowledged he asked Cohen for legal advice, but said he isn't a client since there was never a third party involved, and he never received a bill.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/sean-hannity-in-hot-water).
The Cowboy State has become one of the world's top tax havens, according to the Pandora Papers, a trove of more than 11.9 million documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and The Washington Post. The papers reveal, among other things, how ultra-wealthy people from around the world move money into the U.S., invest, and spend it under a shroud of secrecy. Allison Tait, University of Richmond law professor, joined Cheddar to talk about Wyoming's laidback tax laws, their impact on the nation's economy, and provided some details on the financial arrangement known as the "cowboy cocktail."
Carlo and Baker preview President Biden's address to the nation as Omicron becomes the new dominant Covid strain. Plus, Trump gets booed for getting his booster and the White House gets a new puppy.
China and Russia are saying they want to work closer together in different areas after a recent call between Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. What are the implications of a close partnership between Beijing and Moscow? Cheddar News breaks things down with expert Hagar Chemali.
Michele Schneider, Partner and Director of Trading Research & Education for MarketGauge.com, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where she says the spread of the Omicron variant and Jerome Powell's comments following the latest Fed decision are spooking investors heading into the weekend.
Carlo and Baker wrap up another week discussing the latest explosion in new Covid cases in the Northeast, President Biden's stalled agenda and more. Plus, Love, Hate, Ate featuring the question: why did movie dialogue get so hard to understand?
Since July 2021, families with children have received monthly payments from the federal government as part of the expanded child tax credit, a policy that may be expiring this month. Megan Curran, policy director at the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University, joined Cheddar News to discuss.
During the pandemic, student loan debt repayment was put on pause amid an unprecedented crisis. However, on February 1, 2022, the schedule is set to resume, and currently it looks as though the Biden administration has no plans to extend it. Cody Hounanian, the executive director of the Student Debt Crisis Center, spoke to Cheddar about why he believes the loan collection pause needs to at least be extended as borrowers are still struggling with the resurgent pandemic and inflation. "There's really no good economic or policy or political reason as far as why they're focused on getting payments started now," Hounanian said. "We surveyed 33,000 people with student loans last month. Nine out of 10 told us that they are not ready to resume payments."
As the 2022 midterm elections fast approach, here are some politicians Americans should be on the lookout for. Democratic Massachusetts state senator Sonia Chang-Diaz, who was the first Latina and Asian American woman to be elected to the state's senate, now has her eye on the governorship with Republican Charlie Baker leaving. New Jersey GOP candidate for Congress, Billy Prempeh also bears watching, and while Boston's newest mayor, Democrat Michelle Wu, was already sworn in last month, all eyes will be on Beantown as the first woman and first person of color to hold the office tries to usher in a new era for the city.
