Sean Hannity Debates Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson About War and Impeachment

May 5th, 2007 6:53 PM

Sean Hannity fans know that Friday night marked the much awaited debate between him and Salt Lake City’s outspoken Democrat Mayor Rocky Anderson.

The event took place at the University of Utah, and featured multiple barbs by each contestant, and a great deal of fireworks.

As reported at the KUTV website:

Anderson and Hannity were each given 30 minutes to make a presentation supporting their positions on the two topics of debate [the war in Iraq and whether President Bush should be impeached]. Anderson’s presentation included documents and videos outlining his case. Hannity focused his speech on criticizing dissenters.

The wrap-up article continued (multi-part videos of the entire debate available here):

“If Rocky Anderson will not be equally intelligent, honest and open and criticize the very same people that made the very same arguments, it’s not George Bush who should be impeached or removed from office. It’s your mayor,” Hannity said.

[…]

Anderson has led protests against Bush during each of the president’s past two visits to Utah and travels the country frequently to call for Bush’s impeachment. He has come under frequent criticism from Republicans who say he is embarrassing the city and the state.

What precipitated this event? Well, according to Deseret News:

The debate, hosted by the the Associated Students of the University of Utah, came about after the Fox cable news network canceled a scheduled appearance by Anderson on the "Hannity & Colmes" show. Hannity made an off-the-cuff challenge in response to Anderson's reaction to the cancellation, sparking the debate.

[…]

Tickets to the event sold out in two hours. Kingsbury Hall has a capacity of more than 1,900, and ticket sales brought in nearly $25,000, minus the debate's operating costs. The money is to be distributed to such charities as the Guadalupe Schools, Primary Children's Medical Center and a scholarship fund at the university.

From what I’ve seen so far, and read, the event was a huge success except for the seemingly endless crowd interruptions.

Enjoy.