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Tribune News Service
Tribune News Service
National
Brian Lisi

With support from Russian bots, Sean Hannity supporters smash Keurig machines in response to boycott

They'll do anything to single serve Sean.

As Keurig and other companies abandon the Fox News talk show host for his defense of Alabama Senate candidate and accused child molester Roy Moore, Sean Hannity can take some comfort in knowing that at least one white nationalist and a swarm of Russian bots still have his back.

Seen promoting the #BoycottKeurig and #IStandWithHannity hashtags Sunday was Angelo John Gage, who Newsweek reports has previously tweeted about "white genocide," indicating involvement with the white nationalist movement.

Gage and other Hannity adherents posted videos of themselves online attacking their Keurig machines, which generally retail for about $100, to literally send a message to the coffee machine maker.

"Since I got all this time on Sundays, boycotting my once-beloved NFL, I figured I'd let Keurig and all these other companies know we don't believe in your fake outrage," said Twitter user @montgomerychamp in footage he took of himself before he smashed his personal caffeine crafter with a hammer.

Hannity has been under fire ever since he seemingly suggested that the encounter between the former Alabama state judge and one of his alleged victims might have been consensual.

"He was apparently, like, 32, and he dated _ one girl was 18, one girl was 17. They never said he did _ there was no sexual _ there was kissing involved, and then they're saying this one encounter with a 14-year-old," he said last week on his radio show.

"And it was consensual," his producer interjected.

"And consensual, that's true," said Hannity. "And there's, I just _ I don't know how you find out the truth."

Despite the host saying "no sexual," one of the alleged victims told the Washington Post that Moore touched her genitals over her underwear and forced her to touch his genitals over his underwear when she was 14.

Although Hannity later apologized and stated that Moore should step down from the race if the allegations are true, he has since been retweeting people who have been destroying their own property in tribute to the talk show host, adding messages such as "Love it" and "Thank u."

Amplifying those messages along with Hannity were Russian-linked social media accounts. The hashtag #BoycottKeurig was number one among 600 identified Twitter accounts while others such as #IStandWithHannity and #keurig were getting pushed heavily as well.

Tracked by the Alliance for Securing Democracy, the users "were selected for their clear connection to Russian influence, but not all of the accounts are directly controlled by Russia," the organization states.

Besides the coffee machine maker, E-trade, Realtor.com, 23 and Me, Eloquii and Nature's Bounty have all pulled their advertising from Fox's "Hannity."

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