The feud between Sean Hannity, Fox News’ resident wannabe MMA fighter, and Jimmy Kimmel reached even greater levels of ridiculousness on Friday, with the self-proclaimed non-journalist repeatedly accusing the late-night host of being “Harvey Weinstein Jr.”
In a series of unhinged tweets, Hannity pointed to clips of Kimmel’s past satirical sketch-comedy series The Man Show, which ran from 1999 to 2004 on Comedy Central, as evidence of his being a “pervert” and “Harvey Weinstein Jr.”
Late Thursday night, Hannity teased that he’d have “much more tomorrow” concerning Kimmel’s so-called antics—which has thus far consisted of digging up more archival Man Show clips, browsing the show’s Wikipedia page, and referencing a conversation about Kimmel with Disney honcho Bob Iger that may or may not have happened.
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For those existing on this planet—and not whatever one Hannity is on—conflating Kimmel and Weinstein isn’t just egregious, it’s incredibly irresponsible. Weinstein, a disgraced film mogul, has been credibly accused of rape or sexual harassment by up to 100 women; Kimmel, who has a reputation of being one of the nicest guys in Hollywood, has been accused of rape or sexual harassment by zero women.
And while The Man Show was no doubt problematic—Kimmel once boasted of it as “a joyous celebration of chauvinism”—it’s harmful to compare a sketch-comedy show, where sketches are often staged, pre-recorded, and participants sign consent forms, with real-life sexual misconduct.
Kimmel indeed fired back on Friday afternoon, tweeting at Hannity, “I vote for whichever one best helps you trivialize the horrors of Harvey Weinstein by comparing them to televised comedy bits in which every woman was a willing participant who gladly signed a release.”
Such behavior is particularly rich coming from Hannity, who repeatedly defended Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore after he was credibly accused of a rash of sexual misconduct; defended Fox News president Bill Shine for allegedly covering up Roger Ailes’ sexual misconduct (Shine was eventually let go from the network); passionately defended Fox News chief Roger Ailes following several sexual-harassment allegations (Ailes was also let go); and hosted Bill O’Reilly on his show after it was revealed that O’Reilly had settled multiple sexual-harassment suits, with Hannity saying to his predatory pal, “I think you should come back [to Fox News].”
The dust-up between Hannity and Kimmel began when the staunch Trump defender took issue with a joke the comedian made on his Jimmy Kimmel Live! program about Melania Trump’s accent while reading a children’s story during the White House Easter Egg Roll.
“Liberal Jimmy Kimmel making fun of the first lady of the United States and her involvement in the White House Easter Egg Roll, even her accent. Jimmy, you’re a despicable disgrace,” Hannity said, adding that he’s an “ass clown” and arguing that English is Melania’s “fifth language. How many do you speak?”
Kimmel, as is his wont, fired back at Hannity during his Thursday night monologue, saying, “This is the guy who defended multiply alleged pedophile Roy Moore, and I’m the despicable disgrace? I’m the ass clown?! If I’m an ass clown, and I might very well be, you, Sean, are the whole ass circus.”
He continued: “You’re the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey of ass-clownsmanship, but I do wanna say, I appreciate how compassionate you’ve suddenly become to the plight of immigrants in this country over the last 24 hours. Do you know what I think is disrespectful to the first lady? Cheating on her with a porn star after she has a baby. Why don’t you rant a little about that, Sean Hannity?”
The funnyman was, of course, referring to porn star Stormy Daniels, who’s accusing the president of conducting an affair with her mere months after the first lady had their son, Barron.
