Sean Hannity‘s Thursday night interview with sports commentator Stephen A. Smith got off to an unusual start — at least, by the Fox News host’s standards.

“I hate to do this, I’ve got to compliment you,” Hannity told Smith at the top of their conversation. The Fox News host went on to praise Smith for his interview with CNN anchor Jake Tapper about the latter’s new book, “Original Sin,” which explores the Biden administration’s efforts to cover up the former president’s cognitive health decline while he was still in office.

“I hate to start an interview in a nice way,” Hannity said with a smirk. “But you did a great job and you’re honest and you were asking the right questions.”

“I’m not here to defend Jake Tapper. I don’t know him. I’ve met him a couple of times, I’ve been interviewed by him a couple of times. I interviewed him yesterday on my show, and that’s as far as our relationship goes,” Smith said when asked his opinion about Tapper’s coverage of Biden prior to the 2024 election. “I don’t cover politics. I was covering sports, [but] almost two years before the election, I was pointing the finger at Joe Biden and what I saw. To me, if you had two eyes and you could see, you saw what the hell was going on.”

In response, Hannity said, “You can say it. You can say, ‘Sean Hannity was right and they were wrong.’” “What exactly is it that you were right about?” Smith asked. “I was right about Joe Biden’s cognitive decline,” Hannity replied, to which Smith immediately responded, “Absolutely!”

Rather than directly criticize Tapper, Smith told Hannity whom he believes to be the most responsible for helping to hide President Biden’s health struggles. “I think the biggest thing to peel from [Tapper’s book] are the culprits within the Democratic Party who knew about the cognitive decline,” the sports commentator stated. “They were not only complicit but were willing to circumvent the Constitution of the United States. [They] were willing to shove aside the wishes of the American voters.”

“To me, when you walked around as a party labeling Donald Trump an existential threat for years — for years! — and then a book comes out detailing how several people within the administration and within the Democratic Party may have been guilty of this instead of Donald Trump … I find that to be incredibly alarming,” Smith continued. “Usually, I’m getting on you for how dogged you are and relentless and persistent you are with your takes on the Democratic Party, Sean, but you will not get a dissenting word from me.”

You can watch the full “Hannity” interview yourself in the video above.