Fox News' Sean Hannity makes painful u-turn on live TV about Trump trying to fire Robert Mueller

Mr Hannity cast doubt on the credibility of a 'New York Times' report before seeming to confirm the story was true

Fox News host Sean Hannity made a painful u-turn on his show about whether Donald Trump tried to fired Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating alleged ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Mr Hannity, one of Mr Trump’s most loyal supporters, first suggested that a story reporting that the President attempted to ax Mr Mueller was false. But minutes later, he reversed his claim.

“At this hour the New York Times is trying to distract you,” Mr Hannity said on his programme, referring to the newspaper’s report on Thursday saying that Mr Trump ordered White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mr Mueller last summer.

“They say Trump tried to fire Mueller, but our sources aren’t confirming that,” Mr Hannity added.

Seeming to take a page out of the President’s book, the news host then cast doubt on the credibility of the newspaper.

“And how many times has the New York Times and others gotten it wrong?” he said. Mr Trump has often labelled news coverage that he doesn’t like as “fake news”.

Minutes later on his programme, Mr Hannity changed his tune and seemed to confirm the Times’ report.

“All right, so we have sources tonight just confirming to Ed Henry that, maybe, yeah, Donald Trump wanted to fire the special counsel for conflict. Does he not have the right to raise those questions?” he asked.

“You know, we’ll deal with this tomorrow,” Mr Hannity added before quickly pivoting to a different topic.

Reports have been swirling for months about whether Mr Trump would fire Mr Mueller, who is looking into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government.

Mr Trump has repeatedly insisted there was no collusion.