Brian Kilmeade tried to play it pretty cool Thursday morning on Fox & Friends, explaining that while he didn’t get to watch Jimmy Kimmel Live! when it was on the night before, he did catch the clip of the host calling him a “phony little creep.”
“I hope your son gets better. I hope your son gets all the care he needs,” Kilmeade told Kimmel. “I’m glad you’re interested, you’re doing a great job bringing the dialogue out. But you should actually do what we’re doing. Talk to the people that wrote it, Senator Graham, Senator Cassidy.”
Of course, Kimmel did talk to Sen. Bill Cassidy, who coined the “Jimmy Kimmel test” after the host opened up about his baby son’s open heart surgery. Cassidy promised Kimmel that he would not support any legislation that made health care potentially unaffordable for parents in Kimmel’s situation, but has now sponsored a bill that cannot make those guarantees. Kimmel called Cassidy out for lying to his face on his show Tuesday night.
ADVERTISEMENT
Kilmeade went on to claim that he didn’t kiss Kimmel’s ass, as was suggested the night before, but instead simply wanted to support the host, adding, “even when you weren’t getting great ratings I thought you and the show were excellent.” He also denied asking Kimmel to “blurb” his book.
But while Kilmeade was magnanimous enough on television, his hurt feelings were on full display during a longer rant on his Fox News radio show, where he could be seen on video pacing the room as Kimmel’s entire commentary was played for his listeners.
Saying that “obviously” Kimmel is “very emotional” about all of this, Kilmeade explained that while he doesn’t know the host personally, he is “definitely” a fan. “I liked his show before it was popular,” he said. “He’s very funny and behind the scenes he’s kind of cool and plus we both have a sports background.” Basically, it sounds like Kilmeade thought they should be friends.
“But for him to go out and attack me personally and get into my personality...” Kilmeade added, clearly upset. He then started to push back on Kimmel’s assertion that he wishes he were a member of the “Hollywood elite,” asking, “Why would I ever leave the number one network in all of cable, not only news, and the number one morning show in the country, through all these consequential events, to go out to Los Angeles and do entertainment? I mean, what point is that? ’No one will hire him?’ It’s not even based in fact!”
But the part of Kimmel’s rant that really got under Kilmeade’s skin is when he referred to him as being “little.”
"I’m 5’10", 174, I’m sorry that’s not good enough for you,” Kilmeade shot back. “But I just think if you look at the average chart of a male in America, I think I’m pretty much on target. So, not sure why that was necessary.”
“And I don’t kiss your butt,” he added. “I think you’re good at your job!”
