lashed out about an effort by people on the left to "silence" him after he was busted pushing a harmful conspiracy theory. "That is what we have called on this program as liberal fascism. Attack, boycott, all in an effort to silence conservatives. I serve at the pleasure of the Fox News Channel. I'm here to do my job every night," Hannity said on his eponymous program. Now the Fox News firebrand is flirting with a scenario in which he ends up silencing himself, via pure madness. On his Tuesday night program, Hannity came forth with more froth: "A soft coup is under way right here in the United States of America in an attempt to overturn November's election results and forcibly remove a duly elected president fromcountries in the Middle East that have a whole lot of jihadists and represent a clear and present danger. Have we not learned anything from Europe? Hillary apparently hasn’t.

The phrase “clear and present danger” has been in widespread use for several decades. It goes back to at least 1919 when it appeared in a Supreme Court opinion by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. It really entered the contemporary public lexicon in 1989 with the best-selling spy novel by Tom Clancy, Clear and Present Danger. In 1994, Clancy's book was made into a blockbuster film of the same title starring Harrison Ford, further implanting the phrase in the public's consciousness and increasing its popularity.