Fox News host Sean Hannity cranked up his days-long pitched battle with late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel on Friday, calling him a “sick, twisted, creepy, perverted weirdo” on his program.
“Tonight we’re going to pound him with his own words. ... I have just had it with the utter hypocrisy,” Hannity said in vicious 22-minute on-air attack on Kimmel. He also called the comedian “perverted,” “a racist bigot,” “a self-righteous, sanctimonious social justice warrior” and “Harvey Weinstein Jr.” on the program or on Twitter earlier in the day.
“We’re throwing down the gauntlet on this show,” Hannity said, adding later, “It’s going to end when he apologizes to Melania Trump.”
The feud began Wednesday when Hannity blasted Kimmel for joking on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Monday about the first lady’s accent while she read a children’s book at the White House Easter Egg Roll. Hannity ripped Kimmel as a “despicable disgrace” and called him an “ass clown” on Fox.
Kimmel fired back Thursday, blasting Hannity’s hypocrisy, given his support of harsh immigration laws even though the first lady is an immigrant. He called Hannity the “whole ass circus.” He added: “This is the guy who defended the multiply-alleged pedophile Roy Moore, and I’m a despicable disgrace?” What’s really disrespectful to the first lady, said Kimmel, is “cheating on her with a porn star after she has a baby.”
Hannity featured clips Friday from Comedy Central’s “The Man Show,” which ran from 1999 to 2004 and satirized crude male behavior. The program was co-hosted by Kimmel. In one clip, Kimmel asked women on the street to guess what was in his pants and made suggestive comments. Kimmel appeared in another clip in blackface pretending to be former NBA player Karl Malone.
Kimmel took the bashing in stride, laughing off the “pervert” insult from someone “slobbering” over Donald Trump, Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly (Ailes and O’Reilly were ousted from Fox News for sexual harassment), and former
Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama.
Hannity’s on-air attack followed several increasingly heated tweets between the men.
