Fox News host Sean Hannity engaged in an unusually heated discussion with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) on Wednesday about why she and a handful of her colleagues won’t coalesce around Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as House speaker.
“McCarthy has 202-3 votes. Your side has 20. So if I’m going to use your words, and your methodology, and your math, isn’t it time for you to pack it in and your side to pack it in considering he has over 200 and you have 20?” Hannity asked.
The interview immediately grew contentious when Boebert said she understood Hannity’s frustration, prompting the Fox host to insist he wasn’t frustrated at all.
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Boebert then claimed, in regards to the voting tally, that “there are more for us than there are against us” because some members who have voted for McCarthy are waiting for him “to cave.”
“I’m frustrated by you not answering a direct question,” Hannity said, adding later: “I feel like I’m getting an answer from a liberal!”
Boebert then reiterated that she would not support McCarthy.
The heated back-and-forth put Fox News’ primetime hosts in rare territory opposite each other—with Tucker Carlson just an hour earlier appearing to throw his lot in with Boebert and company.
Carlson opened his monologue by claiming that the pro-McCarthy majority is “using threats and fear to force people to support” him.
“Anyone who opposes Kevin McCarthy, one of his surrogates explained today, is, ‘an enemy,’” [and] ‘a terrorist,’” Carlson said, apparently quoting Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX).
