Tucker Carlson blasts hedge fund manager who urged coronavirus shutdown then profited from stock swoon

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Tucker Carlson spent part of his show Thursday ripping hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who made billions off of the current coronavirus crisis after warning in a nationally televised interview that America would "end as we know it" unless the Trump administration shut down the country.

"Let it sink in: 3.3 million Americans filed unemployment claims last week, the highest number ever recorded in this country in history, ever," Carlson said. "It's easy to see why a lot of people in America are deeply worried about the state of our economy. And maybe nobody in the country has seemed more panicked about it, at least in public, than billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman."

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"Last Wednesday, this got a lot of attention," Carlson added. "Ackman spent a full 28 minutes on live television yelling about how our country is collapsing."

"We need to shut it down now," Ackman said on CNBC. "America will end as we know it, I'm sorry to say so, unless we take this option."

The host talked about the ramifications of Ackman's comments on the markets, in particular his comments about Hilton Hotels.

"That scared the hell out of investors around the world. It was everywhere. You probably remember it," Carlson said. "Ackman was especially terrifying, 'bearish,' as they say on Wall Street on the future of Hilton Hotels, of which he was a shareholder."

"Every hotel is going to be shut down in the country," Ackman said during his CNBC interview and saying Hilton Hotels' share price could hit "zero."

"Sounds like Bill Ackmann is in serious trouble along with the rest of America. Well, no, not exactly. In fact, Bill Ackman is suddenly much richer than ever," Carlson said. "Just this Monday, Ackman made a net profit of more than $2 billion."

"How do they get so low? One of those stocks was Hilton Hotels," Carlson said.

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Carlson criticized Ackman and those who hold him in high regard, saying his behavior "hurts" the country.

"Ackman doesn't seem embarrassed by this in the least. Apparently he plans to keep his new billions. He hasn't announced any plans to donate any of it to the Americans whose lives he just made worse," Carlson said.  "But that's the kind of person Bill Ackrman is. He's an amoral greedhead whose behavior adds nothing worth having to our country and often hurts us."

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