Kristi Noem & Sean Hannity Suffer Awkward On-Air Moment During Fox News Interview

Like two people trying to wave each other through at a stop sign, Kristi Noem and Sean Hannity fell into a jerky on-air moment when the new Secretary of Homeland Security appeared on Fox News for an interview with Hannity, which thankfully did not involve a major makeup fail. Shortly after Noem finished talking about deporting dangerous criminals and securing the border, Hannity tried to take the baton on the conversation by saying, "You know the thing, Madam Secretary, that scares me the most..." But Noem appeared to misconstrue Hannity's words and cut him off with a bracingly awkward laugh, seeming to think that Hannity was alluding to her scaring him, saying, "Well, no..."

Hannity grinned and tried to recover, offering some backtracked words before Noem seemed to detect the disconnect and said, "I thought you said Madam Secretary was scaring you." The two then stared into camera and held an awkward pause before Hannity restarted the engine and tried to diffuse any tension by muttering, "No, no, no..." He then got things back on track with compliments to the staggeringly transformative Noem about her tenure as the governor of South Dakota. While short, the whole thing made for a confusing moment that had us wondering if we were in the middle of a burgeoning feud or simply a live-television misunderstanding.

While Sean Hannity and Kristi Noem may have had a timing-related incident in their most recent interview, they have previously, and successfully, covered more awkward subject matter. Noem appeared on Hannity's show in 2024 after being embroiled in a scandal for shooting and killing her family dog –- by which her new boss Donald Trump was unphased, based on his reaction. In a clip posted to Fox News, Hannity and Noem both kept straight faces as the two talked about Noem's ability to be both a politician and executioner of man's best friend.

Things got off to a bad start, with Hannity fumbling around the issue before asking Noem, "Is there a difference which way you put a dog down, I'm not really sure, but I don't think people really understood it and I want to give you a chance to explain." Despite the awkward intro, this time the handoff went smoothly as Noem went on to say that the dog was "extremely dangerous," that reports that it was a puppy were "fake news," and that it attacked Noem and massacred her livestock. After then using her murderous incident to plug her book, "No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward," Noem wrapped it up and smoothly threw it back to Hannity who agreed that yes, dogs can be dangerous. If anything, it was strange proof that Hannity and Noem could overcome any on-air awkwardness — especially Hannity, who had to recently endure Elon Musk's on-air love fest for Donald Trump.