Sean Hannity suggests Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters is to blame for the Maryland newsroom shooting
- Fox News host Sean Hannity blamed Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters for the Capital Gazette newsroom shooting on Thursday.
- "I've been saying now for days that something horrible was going to happen because of the rhetoric. Really, Maxine?" he said.
- Hannity also blamed former President Barack Obama.
- On Sunday, Waters called for nonviolent protest and the public shame of Trump administration officials.
Fox News host Sean Hannity suggested Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters was to blame for the shooting at the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland, days after the congresswoman's call to publicly shame Trump administration officials.
"I've been saying now for days that something horrible was going to happen because of the rhetoric," Hannity said on Premiere Radio Networks' "The Sean Hannity Show." "Really, Maxine? You want people to create - 'call your friends, get in their faces.'"
Hannity also suggested former President Barack Obama's rhetoric was to blame for the shooting.
"And Obama said that too," Hannity continued. "'Get in their faces, call them out, call your friends, get protesters, follow them into restaurants and shopping malls,' and wherever else she said."
The comments were first reported by the liberal media watchdog Media Matters.
Hannity's comments came in the middle of an active shooter situation in the Capital Gazette newsroom Thursday. Multiple fatalities were reported and a suspect is in custody, according to a city spokeswoman.
At a rally on Sunday, Waters called for nonviolence protest and public shame against Trump administration officials.
"You have members of your Cabinet that have been booed out of restaurants, who have protesters taking up at their house who say, 'No peace, no sleep,'" Waters said. "If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere."
The comments drew the ire of President Donald Trump, who falsely said Waters "called for harm" to his supporters.
A representative for Premiere Radio Networks didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.