Conservative commentator Sean Hannity on Monday asked his supporters to "hold your fire" and stop smashing their Keurig coffee machines as a show of support for him after the company tweeted it was pulling advertising from his Fox News show.
Hannity said the company was a victim of aggressive maneuvers by the left-wing media watchdog Media Matters and a social media person panicked.
"I don't want people losing their jobs because sales dropped so dramatically because conservatives don't want to buy their machines," Hannity said, adding that he is going to give away "500 coffee machines" to his supporters.
Hannity on Friday interviewed Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore over allegations of sexual misconduct against teenagers when he was in his 30s; Moore has denied the allegations in statements, but in his interview with Hannity, he did not deny he may have dated teenage girls. On Monday, an additional accuser came forward saying Moore violently tried to force her to perform oral sex on him when she was 16.
After Media Matters and others criticized Hannity as being too defensive of Moore in his coverage of the story, Keurig tweeted it was going to pull its advertising.
Angelo, thank you for your concern and for bringing this to our attention. We worked with our media partner and FOX news to stop our ad from airing during the Sean Hannity Show.
— Keurig (@Keurig) November 11, 2017
In response, Hannity fans began tweeting out videos of them smashing or destroying their Keurig coffee machines and calling for a boycott.
Hannity retweeted some of the videos over the weekend and at one point wrote he was "laughing my ass off."
https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/929877694526906369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Ffreebeacon.com%2Fculture%2Fpeople-destroy-keurigs-company-pulls-ads-hannitys-show%2F
Keurig CEO Bob Gamgort subsequently apologized to his employees for how the message about its advertising was tweeted, the Hollywood Reporter reported:
On Monday, Keurig CEO Bob Gamgort apologized to his employees for the way the message was conveyed. "I apologize for any negativity that you have experienced as a result of this situation and assure you that we will learn and improve going forward," he wrote. Gamgort reminded staffers that the company advertises on all the major cable channels, rather than just Fox News.
"I accept the apology of the Keurig CEO. Frankly, I think they were victims of this group that they knew nothing about," Hannity said, referring to Media Matters. "I feel sorry that they were dragged into politics."
Hannity said he is going to delete his retweets of the smashing videos.
"If you broke yours ... boom, I'll send you a coffeemaker or I'll replace it. And I'm going to buy a nice one, I'm not going to buy a crappy one," he said.
A growing number of Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Cory Gardner (R., Col.), have said Moore should step out of the race.