Tucker Carlson Offers Rare Apology

It's not often Tucker Carlson offers up an apology, let alone a "sincere" one, though that's what the Fox News host said he wanted to do Wednesday. Carlson kicked off his show by saying he wanted to begin with an apology "that has to do with Joe Biden." He then showed clips of women made uncomfortable by Biden, who apologized Wednesday for his touchy behavior. "But hugging people is not a sin. Sorry. It's not, even if many on the left would like to criminalize it," Carlson said, per Fox. "Hugging is not sexual assault. Eskimo kisses are not rape." And though he admitted "we mocked Joe Biden as … a cuddler run amok" because "it was too amusing," he added, "we are sorry for helping to blur the distinction between human affection and coercive immoral behavior."

"The last thing this country needs is more aggrieved people who think they have been assaulted because a senior citizen hugged them wrong"—that's "anti-human hysteria," said Carlson, who then aired a clip of Nancy Pelosi saying she prefers to keep people at arm's length. "In a society like that, exuberance and human warmth are too risky to display in public. It is a joyless PC hell. Nancy Pelosi and so many on the left already live there," Carlson said. "They are miserable and afraid. They insist that we join them. We won't go." He noted, "none of this, by the way, is a defense of Joe Biden the man or his run for president." Deadline calls it a "veiled 'apology.'" (Carlson has also been in the hot seat recently.)