Sean Hannity fires back at Kathy Barnette after GOP loss in Pennsylvania: ‘Hit me all you want!’

Fox News anchor Sean Hannity and Pennsylvania GOP Senate nominee Kathy Barnette have announced following Keystone State’s key results, which Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dave McCormick go head to head, spat a bit – and well ahead of Barnette.

At a watch party late Tuesday night, Oz thanked Hannity for his support, adding that the Fox anchor played an integral part in his Senate bid. “He knows how to make a difference and he’s done that throughout the campaign,” Oz said. “A lot of it behind the scenes — and giving me advice in late-night chats. Again, the kind of things that true friends do for each other.”

Oz’s account of Hannity’s campaign support is consistent with how Hannity has at times behaved like a political agent, as evidenced by his revealing text messages with GOP officials and bedtime phone calls with then-President Donald Trump. (In fact, Hannity’s relationship with the ex-president was so close that he was dubbed Trump’s shadow chief of staff.)

When Barnette got wind of Oz’s comments on Wednesday, she wasn’t pleased. In a tweet That afternoon, the participant in the Jan. 6 Stop the Steal rally urged Pennsylvanians to “never forget” how Hannity “deliberately interfered with our elections and sowed lies and disinformation.”

In response, Hannity addressed Barnette’s comment later that night, though he said he didn’t want to “deep into” the issue.

“Kathy my first instinct was to repost all your inflammatory tweets and there are a lot of them but I really don’t have to defend myself,” the Fox host said. “You’re the one who really has to answer the questions about all of your comments and all of your tweets. You can hit me whatever you want. You are not the first person.”

Last week, Hannity showed viewers several posts from Barnette — one of which called then-President Barack Obama a “Muslim” — as part of his argument against her candidacy.

Hannity said his show made repeated attempts to contact Barnette, but she “refused to answer our questions.” He then reiterated that Barnette “in my opinion will never be elected to statewide office unless she is willing and able to answer questions about her past comments, behavior, rhetoric and tweets.”