There was a whole lot of B.S. going on in Sean Hannity’s response to Jimmy Kimmel’s announcement that he was calling off their feud. Hannity was much less clever than his former foe and his showy sanctimony fell apart at the end.

Kimmel’s statement took some wittily ironic digs at Hannity: “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.” (Background on the Hannity/Kimmel feud here, here and here)

Hannity’s reply had none of the wit or humor:

Hannity: “It seems to be more of a kind of a forced, Disney-corporate apology directed more towards the LGBTQ community rather than about Kimmel’s comments about the first lady.”

I don’t know about the corporate part but Kimmel very clearly apologized only to the LGBTQ community and not to Melania Trump (it was his mocking of her accent that set off Hannity) or Hannity.

But then Hannity pretended to take the high road:

HANNITY: 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 is sincere.

But from my perspective, I really do kind of enjoy a good fight and I do agree with Jimmy in the sense it’s time to move on. Now for me, what this was really about, never about Hannity versus Jimmy Kimmel. It’s a lot bigger than that for me, and here’s why.

Just the level of hatred, vitriol against this president and his family is frankly unprecedented…

[…]

Now, attacking the first lady for her accent while reading to kids is just one small example but it’s a line in the sand for me. It’s obvious that Melania, Barron, they are not political in their roles. And those cheap shots, I’m saying, need to end.

Now, look, I was a tough critic. People have been writing, “You were a tough critic of President Obama and his policies and you always talked about him and Michelle and going to the church of G.D. America and hanging out with Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn and Reverend Wright" and so on and so forth. And that’s all true by the way.

And I also criticized Michelle Obama’s political statements like I couldn’t believe a couple of times she said for the first time in my adult life I’m proud of my country. I’m like, really? It makes no sense.

And the liberal media is trying to say my commentary of Michelle Obama’s political statements is somehow similar to what Jimmy Kimmel said about Melania Trump. Frankly, that’s a lie. They know it. I was criticizing Michelle Obama on the substance of her political comments.

By the way, no one will ever report that I have said multiple times on radio and TV that Michelle and Barack Obama seem like they were wonderful parents. That their kids seem wonderful and they raised good kids and they did a good job because it’s not easy being in the public eye and that kids should be left alone. I said it many times. That’s the difference and I think that’s a big one.

Actually, Hannity didn’t just criticize Michelle Obama “on the substance of her political comments,” Hannity repeatedly played the race card against her by portraying her as an angry black woman and without examining the intent of her statements. Furthermore, has he ever apologized for promoting Trump’s bogus birtherism? That had nothing to do with President Obama’s politics. 

Hannity went on to claim, with a straight face, that the “endless stream of lies, propaganda, conspiracy theories, cheap shot, personal attacks” are “hurting” the American people and “the ability of the president” to “do his job.” As if he ever spent one minute worrying about whether his racist attacks on Barack or Michelle Obama might have harmed the country.

However, Hannity did make at least one apparently sincere gesture of conciliation:

HANNITY: I’ve noticed by the way, Jimmy, you seem focused on politics. You seem sincere when you talked about healthcare, you seemsincere when you talk about the country. 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.

You want to have a serious discussion? We can talk about the president, his policies, comedy, political correctness. Ending boycotts, how I’ve supported Bill Maher, Howard Stern, Don Imus, Opie and Anthony. People that I disagree with vehemently.

My bet is you will actually agree with me on a lot more issues than you think. But from my point of view, it’s over with Jimmy Kimmel.

But then, he concluded with this:

HANNITY: By the way, Jimmy, if you do want to start up again, I promise I’ll punch back even harder and my producer spent all weekend compiling a lot of your highlights or low lights in your career. They don’t make you look too good. So instead of airing them, we’ll put ‘em in storage and we have more important pressing issues like what’s happening in Syria and the gassing of women and children.

Watch Hannity’s idea of the high road below, from the April 9, 2018 Hanity.

(Transcript excerpts via FoxNews.com, with copy edits)