Fox News host Sean Hannity attacked CNN’s Jake Tapper after the anchor criticized him over his commentary on President Biden’s State of the Union speech last week.
“I was supposed to have a message for Fake Jake Tapper. But after my team did a little investigating, this guy barely like, gets over 500,000 viewers a day or night or whenever he’s on,” Hannity said on his program Monday evening. “I’d say if you want me to respond, Fake Jake, you need at least a million, million-and-a-half viewers before you get my attention. I addressed it earlier today.”
“Jake, you’re a liberal talk show host pretending to be a journalist,” he added. “That’s why the name Fake Jake is perfect for you.”
The host’s comments were first highlighted by Mediaite.
After Biden’s speech to Congress, during which he at times spoke quickly and was shouting, Hannity called Biden “jacked up Joe,” and mocked him as “hyped up and bizarre.”
Leading Republicans and conservative pundits, including Hannity, have long attacked Biden over his age, referring to him as “sleepy Joe.”
Tapper asserted Hannity’s knock on Biden’s speech thus amounted to a flip-flop.
“Can Republicans have it both ways?” Tapper said late last week on CNN. “I mean, this also reminds me of the fact that they accuse him of being a dumb puppet fool and also this criminal mastermind.”
“It just seems like, you’ve gotta pick a lane here, right?” he added.
Updated: 9:54 p.m.