Sean Hannity (30 December 1961-) was an American talk show host and conservative political commentator. He was born in New York City and raised in the Franklin Square hamlet of Hampstead, Long Island, and he worked as a general contractor before becoming a volunteer talk show host at UC Santa Barbara in 1989. He then became involved with WVNN in Athens, Alabama and WGST in Atlanta, Georgia, and he joined Fox News after its creation in 1996. In 2008, he merged his Hannity & Colmes show into Hannity, and he promoted conspiracy theories such as the birther conspiracy about Barack Obama, the murder of Seth Rich, and rumors that Hillary Clinton had pneumonia during the 2016 presidential election. Hannity was an early supporter of Donald Trump during the 2016 election, and he became so close to Trump and so influential in his decision-making that he was considered his "shadow" chief-of-staff.