Sean Hannity says he will address Jimmy Kimmel's statement on air
NEW YORK — Fox News' Sean Hannity says he will address comments by ABC late-night comic Jimmy Kimmel on his show Monday night with a "full and comprehensive response." Kimmel apologized for offending the gay community with a joke he made at Hannity's expense, and tried to de-escalate their feud that began over Kimmel's joke about first lady Melania Trump's accent.
Kimmel said in a Twitter post Sunday that his exchanges with Hannity were fun but he didn't want to add to the "vitriol" of their spat, which included Hannity calling Kimmel a "sick, twisted, creepy, perverted weirdo" during his Fox show on Friday.
Kimmel said such animosity is "harmful to our country" and he wanted to apologize "to those who took offense."
He also said President Trump's wife had enough to worry about "without being used as a prop to increase TV ratings."
On ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on April 2, Kimmel poked fun at the first lady's reading of a children's book at the White House Easter egg hunt. He mocked the accent of the first lady, who was born in Slovenia.
"Dees and dat," Kimmel repeated, with a laugh.
Hannity, cable television's most fervent supporter of the Republican president, took exception, and he and Kimmel exchanged barbs through the week.
Hannity's initial attack on Kimmel, calling him an "ass clown," was enthusiastically countered by Kimmel, who said Hannity was the "whole ass circus."
"Game on," Hannity said on Friday. Hannity vowed to continue his attacks unless Kimmel apologizes to the first lady, saying, "Apologize to the First Lady and I'll stop. If not, I will NEVER stop. EVER!"
He rolled a series of Kimmel clips, mostly from the comedian's days as a co-host of Comedy Central's "The Man Show," that featured segments showing Kimmel with an exaggerated fake erection, asking women to find something hidden in his pants and going up to random women in the street asking if they wanted to have sex with him.
Kimmel thanked Hannity for the trip down memory lane but said the idea that Hannity would call anyone a pervert while he was "slobbering over" Donald Trump is, "to quote a fella you love very much, 'sad.'" Trump boasted on a 2005 "Access Hollywood" tape about fame enabling him to grope and try to have sex with women, and he later apologized.
Kimmel, in his Twitter message, said he hopes Hannity will "continue his newly-found advocacy for women, immigrants and First Ladies."
