Breitbart: The news that the Weekly Standard has appointed Stephen Hayes editor-in-chief has caused some to wonder if former editor and consistent Trump critic Bill Kristol all but made himself toxic for the publication’s masthead.
Whether that’s true, or not, may depend upon one’s view of all things Washington — and Trump; however, it’s difficult to see how Hayes represents much of a change in that regard given his long list of failed prognostications and analysis during the course of the 2016 presidential campaign. Take for example this gem of a Weekly Standard headline atop a Hayes’ item from July of 2016: Donald Trump Is Crazy, and So Is the GOP for Embracing Him. Wrote Hayes of Trump, “(T)his isn’t the behavior of a rational, stable individual. It should embarrass those who have endorsed him and disgrace those who have attempted to normalize him.”
As some will recall, it was the Weekly Standard that sought to undermine Trump right on through the Fall by embracing wannabe candidate Evan McMullin, who still continues to attack both Trump and the Republican Party as a whole as basically racist and corrupt.
It’s unclear how the lingering memory of exchanges like this one with Sean Hannity back in January of 2016, who called Hayes out directly for being “so consistently wrong” on Trump, will impact any potential relationship between Hayes in his role as editor and the incoming administration.
Sean Hannity calls out Stephen F. Hayes of The Weekly Standard for being consistently wrong about Donald Trump’s demise. The two argue Trump’s electability against Hillary Clinton on a special edition of FOX News’ Hannity after the FOX Business debate in Charleston, South Carolina. While Hayes concedes he has been wrong, he calls out other FOX News contributors who have been “Trump boosters.”
As late as September of this year Hayes almost looked as if he was rooting for Hillary Clinton during the presidential debate on September 26. From the article “Hayes Explains How Trump Walked Right Into Hillary’s Tax Return ‘Trap”:
“She set him up, and Trump walked right into her trap by saying that he was smart for not paying any taxes,” Hayes said.
He explained that Trump followed that admission with a series of internally contradictory responses, claiming that he couldn’t release his tax returns while he was being audited and that he would release them when Clinton released her 30,000 deleted emails.
“It was sort of this mish-mash of excuses,” Hayes said. “And rather than turning and pivoting and making an attack on her, he engaged that debate on her terms and I thought lost it badly.”
Earlier in May of 2016, Hayes appeared on Fox News pushing the notion that Trump would ban Islam and Muslims from the United States and all but withdraw the United States from world markets, while engaging in name calling of the now president-elect. Said Hayes, “If you have principles and believe we shouldn’t ban a religion? Don’t ban a religion? A country founded on freedom of religion—it’s not good idea to ban a religion. Republicans can’t just cast aside their principles, free trade, because Donald Trump comes around and this orange guy suggests that free trade is bad. We’re going to throw away 300 years of Adam Smith.”
