Sean Hannity left red faced after live shout out to Virginia Republicans falls flat

Crowds cheering for Glenn Youngkin could not hear Fox News, or were not interested

Sean Hannity and Fox News colleague Sara Carter were left red faced after failing to receive applause from a room full of Republicans who were celebrating Glenn Youngkin’s gubernatorial win in Virginia.

On Tuesday night, having declared Mr Youngkin’s closely fought win the start of a “red wave sweeping across the United States”, anchors for Fox News called on supporters of Mr Youngkin to cheer for Mr Hannity.

“They love you here Sean, they love you,” Ms Carter told Mr Hannity, with Fox News’s footage flicking from the two reporters to shots of a cheering crowd of Mr Youngkin supporters.

“Tell them Sean Hannity says ‘hello’ and congratulations early,” he told his colleague, Ms Carter, who was in the room with cheering Mr Youngkin fans.

She turned and shouted: “Hey everyone, Sean Hannity says ‘hello’ and congratulations”. The Fox News reporter also waved at the room and gave a thumbs up.

The reply was almost inaudible, with about three people cheering back at Ms Carter, Mr Hannity and Fox News’s cameras.

That did not go unnoticed back in the studio, with Mr Hannity remarking: “Oh there’s three people ... that was pretty great”. The segment with Ms Carter was swiftly dropped.

She told Fox News viewers beforehand that Mr Youngkin’s followers were “ready to spread the red wave across America”.

“I’m so excited to be here. This is history, really really is,” said Ms Carter.

“There isn’t a person that doesn’t tell me this isn’t the beginning of a red wave across the United States. So Glenn Youngkin is just the beginning”.

It followed the former private equity executive’s marginal win against Democrat candidate Terry McAuliffe, who failed to fire-up his base — or land attacks against Mr Youngkin being supported by Donald Trump.

The Virginia gubernatorial race was widely viewed as a forecaster for Democrats and Republicans a year before 2022’s midterm elections.