“It’s Time to Move On”: Is Sean Hannity Actually Ending the Kimmel Feud?

It appears the most recent late night-conservative pundit feud is coming to a close—well, maybe.

After some acrimonious back-and-forth, Sean Hannity has tentatively accepted Jimmy Kimmel’s call to end their back-and-forth, inviting the ABC host to join him for a debate on his Fox News program—but not without a little more scolding and the promise that, should Kimmel ding him again, “I’ll punch back even harder.”

“I really do kind of enjoy a good fight,” Hannity said Monday night, but added, “I do agree with Jimmy in the sense it’s time to move on.” Hannity said his animosity toward Kimmel was never really about Kimmel, but rather that it stemmed from the left’s general contempt for the president. As he invited the comedian to join him on his program, Hannity told Kimmel, “You seem sincere when you talked about health care, you seem sincere when you talk about the country. I want to extend an invitation. If you want to come on this show, I promise no name-calling, no anger, no rehashing of the Twitter fight . . . My bet is that you’ll actually agree with me on more issues than you think.”

The TV hosts began feuding last week when Hannity objected to a joke in which Kimmel mocked Melania Trump’s accent. Hannity called Kimmel a variety of names, including “ass clown” and “despicable disgrace.” Kimmel, of course, fired back: “If I’m an ass clown . . . you, Sean, are the whole ass circus,” he said. “The ass lion tamer and the ass human cannonball . . . you’re the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey of ass-clownsmanship.” (It’s worth noting that this is not Kimmel’s first feud with a Fox host; last year, he also had a brief spat with Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade, whom the comedian called a “phony little creep” after the pundit criticized Kimmel for his health-care coverage following his infant son’s health scare.) Kimmel and Hannity’s feud later spilled over to Twitter, where the comedian wrote, among many other things, “Don’t worry—just keep tweeting—you’ll get back on top! (or does Trump prefer you on bottom?) Either way, keep your chin up big fella..XO.”

Conservatives did not like Kimmel’s joke about Hannity, calling it homophobic—the same way they did when Stephen Colbert insinuated during an infamously fiery monologue that the president’s mouth is best used as Vladimir Putin’s “c--k holster.” Kimmel has deleted his tweet, and on Sunday issued an apology on Twitter—along with a call to bury the hatchet.

“While I admit I did have fun with our back and forth, after some thought, I realize that the level of vitriol from all sides (mine and me included) does nothing good for anyone and, in fact, is harmful to our country,” Kimmel wrote, adding later, “By lampooning Sean Hannity’s deference to the president, I most certainly did not intend to belittle or upset members of the gay community and to those who took offense, I apologize. I will take Sean Hannity at his word that he was genuinely offended by what I believed and still believe to be a harmless and silly aside referencing our First Lady’s accent. I am hopeful that Sean Hannity will learn from this too and continue his newly found advocacy for women, immigrants, and First Ladies and that he will triumph in his heroic battle against sexual harassment and perversion.”

In response, Hannity tweeted a teaser for his Monday night show, on which he said Kimmel’s mea culpa struck him as a “forced Disney corporate apology directed more towards the L.G.B.T.Q. community rather than about Kimmel’s comments about the First Lady.” Still, he said, “I believe everyone should accept apologies. That’s how I was raised, that’s what my religion teaches me, and I’m gonna assume he’s sincere.”

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