Sean Hannity Apologizes After On-Air ‘Misunderstanding’ With Tucker Carlson

During a handoff between their Fox News shows, Hannity seemed to refute Carlson’s comments about Jeff Bezos and capitalism

Tucker Carlson Sean Hannity
Photo credit: Fox News

Sean Hannity tweeted an apology to Tucker Carlson and the Fox News audience Tuesday night after an unexpected exchange between the two hosts about Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos occurred between their shows.

During his 8 p.m. show, Carlson reacted to news that Bezos had made $13 billion in one day during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, saying the Amazon founder “has become extremely rich, richer than any man in history, from all of this, including a lot of the suffering.”

“I’m not against wealth accumulation. I’m not against free enterprise but $13 billion in a day suggests something is skewed with the system, no?” Carlson asked a guest.

As Carlson handed off his show at 9 p.m., Hannity responded, “People can make money. They provide goods and services people want, need, and desire? That’s America. It’s called freedom — capitalism — and as long as it’s honest, right? People decide.”

Carlson seemed surprised by his colleague’s comment but didn’t have a chance to respond.

The Daily Caller, a conservative website founded by Carlson, tweeted a clip of the exchange and said Hannity had “refuted” Carlson. Hannity replied to the tweet, “I was very clear I support capitalism. If someone is honestly providing goods and services people want, need, and desire I’m fine with that. If they capitalize on tragedy, that’s a different issue and I was very clear. I’ve seen no evidence of that. But if I do, watch out.”

He went on, “I was reiterating Tucker’s point on NOT being versus capitalism. I was in the chair one minute before airtime and I was specifically responding to the end of Tucker’s interview when he said he supported honest capitalism, I had not heard any of the other part of the interview.”

In a third tweet, he apologized “for any misunderstanding to Tucker,” as well as his viewers.

Watch the hand-off, below:

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