Despite Cheney's reported correction on China drilling claim, Hannity asserted China is "drilling 60 miles off our shores"

Summary: Sean Hannity claimed on his radio show, "[W]e've got China, you know, joining with Cuba, they're drilling 60 miles off our shores of Florida." But Vice President Dick Cheney has reportedly issued a correction for making the same claim, as has George Will, whom Cheney cited as the source of his claim.

On the June 16 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, Sean Hannity claimed, "[W]e've got China, you know, joining with Cuba, they're drilling 60 miles off our shores of Florida." But as Media Matters for America has noted, Vice President Dick Cheney has reportedly issued a correction for making the same claim. Cheney cited a column by The Washington Post's George Will in a June 11 speech to assert that "oil is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida. But we're not doing it, the Chinese are, in cooperation with the Cuban government." According to the Associated Press, Cheney issued a correction on June 12, saying, "It is our understanding that, although Cuba has leased out exploration blocks 60 miles off the coast of southern Florida, which is closer than American firms are allowed to operate in that area, no Chinese firm is drilling there."

Will issued a correction to his column on June 17.

From the June 16 edition of ABC Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show:

HANNITY: The biggest obstacle to putting more domestic oil in the pipeline is not economics or technological hurdles. You know, it's the pro-OPEC Democratic majority and the irrational U.S. Congress and the attacks against the oil companies. It's become totally irrational. And what they have successfully been able to do politically, they've been able to navigate the projection of blame from themselves, where it belongs -- because liberals are to blame, liberals are the cause -- and they focus people's anger on the oil companies and their profits. What about the profits the government makes every time we fill up at a gas station? It is -- it's pretty -- they've been very successful at all this propaganda. But if we drill here, drill now, we will pay less.

I mean, we're supposed to take great comfort in the news over the weekend and earlier today that, oh, Saudi Arabia is going to raise oil production to record levels within weeks in an attempt to avert an escalation of social and political unrest around the world. Well, why are we bowing at the altar of the Saudis and the -- you know, you look at the instability, the political instability of the Middle East, you know, why don't we become energy independent? And for whatever reason, Senator McCain's not on board with drilling in ANWR [Arctic National Wildlife Refuge]. I don't get it. It could be the single biggest, best defining issue in this campaign. Now I think, and I would suggest, that he change his mind on it, based on the high price of energy, and he can compare and contrast Barack Obama, who wants to raise taxes on coal and natural gas, and this windfall profit tax on oil -- who doesn't want to drill anywhere, and you can compare and contrast and see who the people go along with.

I mean, you know, we've got China, you know, joining with Cuba, they're drilling 60 miles off our shores of Florida.

But we can't drill there. And any effort that we've ever had, the Democrats have rejected any attempt to expand offshore or any drilling anyplace, anywhere, or any attempts to become energy independent. I'm telling you, it's nuts out there.

—Z.A.

Zachary Aronow is an intern at Media Matters for America.