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A night after Fox News ran President Trump’s 2020 re-election “kickoff” rally uninterrupted in primetime, Fox News host Sean Hannity handed over almost the entirety of his show to a phone interview with the president. And while their friendly conversation on Wednesday night broke little news, the president did find time to boast about his rally’s ratings-and to take an apparent jab at Hannity. Discussing Trump’s penchant for using Twitter, Hannity noted that many people would like for Trump to “turn off the switch,” prompting the president to say he uses social media to circumvent the media. Trump then quickly pivoted to his TV ratings.“If I don’t use social media-outside of you and a few other great people-I call them patriots,” the president told Hannity. “But actually, you’re not REALLY patriots as much as you want ratings.”“I mean, you're getting great ratings, in all fairness Sean. It’s like, last night, you got tremendous-I heard the speech. That was an easy night, you and Tucker [Carlson] and everyone else said let’s do it and you did it.”According to Nielsen, Hannity’s program on Tuesday night-which was largely devoted to airing the rally-drew over five million total viewers to easily lead cable news for the night. In comparison, Trump’s much-hyped primetime interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos drew an audience of only 3.9 million.In fact, on Monday night, Hannity sent a rather unsubtle message to the president after the disappointing ratings came in for his ABC special-stick with Fox News if you want to draw viewers.Highlighting that a March phone interview he did with Trump outdrew Stephanopoulos, Hannity said it was “humiliating” for the ABC News anchor and that he needs to “pack it up,” all while celebrating the president’s low ratings on another network.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

Crilly, a veteran shark hunter, was with friends off Manasquan Inlet in New Jersey when he had a “once in a lifetime” experience - he came face to face with a great white shark estimated to be about 16 feet long and 2,000 pounds. Never seen anything like this before,” Crilly told NBC after the clip went viral overnight. Experts told NBC that Crilly's brush with the great white, which has seen its population rise in the area, may have been a hungry mother about to give birth.

Iran and the United States are as close to direct conflict as they have been for three decades, since Operation Praying Mantis in 1988 which was, at the time, the largest surface naval engagement since World War II.A lot of ink has been spilled and oxygen expended discussing the matter, some of it good and some of it simplistic. Here a few thoughts, informed by being lucky enough to spend close to seven months studying in the Islamic Republic while finishing a doctorate in philosophy on Iranian history. I worked on the Iran desk at the Pentagon during the George W. Bush administration, frequently visit the Persian Gulf, and have followed Iran almost continuously for a quarter century.