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Sean Hannity Gives $26K to Erling Davis, Obamacare Phone Operator Fired for Talking to Him

Earline Davis

Earline Davis

Fox News host Sean Hannity is coming to the rescue of Erling Davis, the Obamacare hotline operator who was fired after she spoke on his show Monday. Hannity is giving her the equivalent of a year’s salary, $26,000, and vowing to help her find a new job through his listeners.

Davis, who is from Panama City, Florida, went on Hannity’s show again yesterday to discuss the details of her termination. 

“I don’t want you to have to pay a price just for taking our call… So I want to help you out here,” Hannity sais.

The host said his accountant told him he can “legally gift” Davis a tax-free sum of $13,000 for her and $13,000 for one of her two kids. The total of $26,000 would cover her full-time annual salary.

“You were kind, patient, helpful. You answered every question,” Hannity told Davis yesterday. “Wasn’t that what your job was, to answer the questions? The president gave out the number.”

“Yes, sir. That was,” she answered.

“Did they ever tell you that you can’t answer questions on a radio show? Was that part of your training?” he asked her.

“No, sir. I never knew about that,” she responded.

During the call on Monday, after Hannity complained that he had been unable to create an account at the healthcare website, healthcare.gov, Davis told him the registration system would be “down” for 42 hours.

“I understand your frustration,” she said. “We get calls like this everyday, but we just encourage people to not give up and just try until you get in. But nobody won’t be able to get in until like 42 hours later.”

Davis told Hannity she had been provided a script to read to callers advising them of the glitches. Hannity persuaded her to read it aloud.

“Thanks for your interest in the health insurance marketplace. We are having a lot of visitors trying to use our website right now. This is causing some glitches for some people trying to create an account or log in. Keep trying and thanks for your patience. You might have better success during off-peak hours like later at night or early in the morning. We’ll continue working to improve the site so you can get covered,” Davis said the script reads.

“They told us there is a script for everything, so we just type in key words and lookup that script and then we read it to the consumer,” she added.

The day after that on-air conversation, Davis told Hannity she was escorted into human resources on Tuesday and she spoke by speakerphone to “one of the head ladies,” who told her “we can’t have that type of stuff at the job and that we have to release you.”

“That’s when I put my badge down on the desk,” she added.

Davis said she had the job for about five weeks.

“I’m not really sure why they did this. You were on my radio show today. I feel terrible about this for you,” Hannity said. “we set up a special site — e-mail on my website, [email protected]. It’s been overwhelming and we’ll send the e-mails to you. People want to send you stuff…People are stepping up. We already have one job offer we know of for you. We’ll pass it all on as quickly as we can.”

“What is your reaction to people wanting to help you this way?” he asked.

“I wasn’t really expecting much of anything. But it’s a blessing from God,” she said. “So I’m really happy.”

“Are you surprised that Kathleen Sebelius still has her job and you got fired for doing yours?” Hannity said.

“Yes, sir,” Davis answered.

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