Sean Hannity apparently thinks Donald Trump might not have been qualified to be president.
The Fox News host and staunch Trump ally made the admission following an intense on-air clash with Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
After several minutes of arguing and shouting over each other, Hannity cut the interview, declaring: “Thank you. Goodbye.”
“I think people that never held public office, like you, maybe they’re not qualified to be president,” Hannity said, still heated, moments after the interview ended.
(Trump, a real estate tycoon, was the first president never to have served in the military or held prior elected office).
Earlier in the discussion, Hannity grilled Ramaswamy over his comments about Israel during an interview earlier this week with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
When Ramaswamy claimed Hannity was mischaracterising his comments, Hannity pointed to the candidate’s history of lying about his own positions.
“You do this in every single interview. You say stuff and then you deny it. You deny your own words. So, you know, why don’t you just own what you say and stand by it and stop playing these games?” Hannity asked.
After his appearance, Ramaswamy seized on Hannity’s comment about never holding office in a post on X (formerly Twitter), noting that it “would have disqualified 2016 Donald Trump, who would go on to become the greatest president of the 21st century,” and casting himself as the “new outsider.”
The upstart candidate made a similar comment lauding Trump at the first Republican debate, prompting the four-times indicted frontrunner in the race to shower him with praise.