Sean Hannity basically accepted Jimmy Kimmel’s apology for his rhetoric during their week-long feud, though he said it sounded like it was prompted by his corporate overlords and solicitousness for gays.
He also finished his monologue at the end of Monday night’s “Hannity” show by inviting Mr. Kimmel to appear.
“I want to extend an invitation. You want to come on this show, I promise no name calling, no anger, no rehashing of the Twitter fight” over the ABC comedian’s mocking of first lady Melania Trump’s accent.
“My bet is that you’ll actually agree with me on a lot more issues than you think,” he concluded.
But he started his monologue in a much tougher vein.
Mr. Hannity said he had “read the apology carefully” and that it sounded “more of a forced corporate Disney apology” that was “directed more toward the LGBTQ community.”
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In the course of their feud, Mr. Kimmel had implied that Mr. Hannity and President Trump were gay lovers in a manner that degraded Mr. Hannity.
For that, Mr. Kimmel specifically apologized to “members of the gay community” in his statement posted to Twitter on Sunday.
To a series of chyrons and images including such titles as “Kimmel backs down,” Mr. Hannity told his viewers that whether Mr. Kimmel’s apology was serious was “for you to decide.”
For himself, he said, “I believe everyone should accept apologies. That’s how I was raised. That’s what my religion teaches me. And I’m going to assume he’s sincere.”
“I do kind of enjoy a good fight, and I do agree with Jimmy in the sense that it’s time to move on,” he concluded.
Mr. Hannity then moved on into one of his favorite topics — bias in what he called the “media industrial complex.”
He said his offense-taking at Mr. Kimmel’s “dees and dat” mocking of Mrs. Trump reading to children on Easter weekend was because media bias against President Trump had normalized attacks on his family members — “a small example [but] a line in the sand,” Mr. Hannity said.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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