Rusty DeGraff, a senior policy adviser for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), targeted Fox News host Sean Hannity’s advertisers during the coronavirus outbreak.

DeGraff tweeted on Thursday, noting that some of Hannity’s advertisers were allegedly asking for bailouts due to the rampant economic disruption started by the coronavirus epidemic. The Pelosi staffer asked the corporations if they would support Sean Hannity, allegedly, calling the coronavirus a “hoax.”

“No joke, some of Sean Hannity’s advertisers are emailing me asking for bailouts,” DeGraff wrote in a now-deleted tweet. “I’ve asked them if they thought advertising on his show while he called it a hoax contributed to their need for a bailout.”

“I haven’t heard back from any of them,” he added.

The tweet drew swift condemnation from the Tea Party Patriots, who wrote that the country needs unity during a national crisis.

The Tea Party Patriots wrote:

While companies struggle to avoid layoffs and bankruptcy, A policy advisor for Nancy Pelosi is more concerned about where they are advertising! When will the Left set aside its hatred of conservatives and do what’s right? America needs answers, not division.

Hannity has recently denied reports that he has not taken the coronavirus epidemic seriously.

The Fox News host said:

By the way, this program has always taken the coronavirus seriously, and we have never called the virus a hoax. We call what they’re doing — trying to bludgeon the president out, their politicizing of this virus — predictable, despicable, repulsive, all of the above.

This would not be the first time that leftists have targeted Fox News hosts’ advertisers.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s advertisers faced an onslaught of pressure from leftist activists after the conservative made comments criticizing immigration policy.

“We have a moral obligation to admit the world’s poor, they tell us, even if it makes our own country poorer, and dirtier, and more divided,” Carlson said in 2018.

Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.