Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore refuses to debate his own political opponent, but he apparently has no problem arguing with comedians ― on Twitter, at least.
The former Alabama judge, who stands accused of sexually assaulting and attempting to date teenagers in the 1980s, challenged late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday after Tony Barbieri, a writer and cast member on Kimmel’s show, heckled Moore during a campaign rally at a church on Wednesday night.
Officers escorted Barbieri out of the rally after he called Moore “a man’s man” and asked the crowd, “Does that look like the face of a molester?”
Moore took a shot at Kimmel for sending Barbieri to the rally instead of making an appearance himself. “If you want to mock our Christian values,” he tweeted at Kimmel, “come down here to Alabama and do it man to man.”
Unchastened, Kimmel replied to Moore’s challenge minutes later with a zinger of his own:
The back and forth didn’t end there. Moore tried to get in the last word with an appeal to Southern hospitality ― and by subtly calling Kimmel a bigot:
Prompting Kimmel to once again deliver a cutting comeback:
This story has been updated with additional tweets from Kimmel and Moore.