THEODORE, Alabama — The U.S. Senate campaign of Judge Roy Moore is firing back at Jimmy Kimmel and his paid trickster Rich Barbieri—also known as “Jake Byrd”—for disrupting a worship service at which Moore spoke here on Wednesday night.
“Jimmy Kimmel and the ‘Hollywood elite’ cross the line when they invade our Churches under a disguise and attempt to make a mockery of our worship services,” Drew Messer, a senior adviser to Moore, told Breitbart News on Thursday morning after the incident at the church on Wednesday night.
On Wednesday evening, after the pastor of Magnolia Springs Baptist Church here in Theodore, Alabama, just outside Mobile warned attendees of a worship service at which Moore was speaking multiple times that it was against the law in Alabama to disrupt worship services, Barbieri proceeded to interrupt the worship service during Moore’s speech.
Earlier during the Judge’s remarks, a leftist protester who infiltrated the church started shouting at Moore. “But the whole town says you did it!” the man yelled as Moore began debunking the allegations against him. “The entire town? All the girls are lying?”
As Breitbart News reported on Wednesday night:
The man was shouted down by the entire church and then escorted out by police officers on site.
“Get on out of here!” another man yelled at the lone unruly protester as police escorted the disrupter out. “You ought to be ashamed. You’re in a Church. You ought to be ashamed to even be from here! Get on out of here!”
Then, the church’s pastor retook the microphone for a moment before handing it back to Moore. “I must remind everyone present this is a worship service,” the pastor said. “And by the way it is illegal to disturb a worship service.”
The crowd cheered. “The next one who disturbs the service will be turned over to the police,” the pastor added to resounding cheers. “As the pastor of this church, I’m saying we’re going to do things peacefully and in order. If you love Roy Moore or you hate Roy Moore, listen.”
The pastor had earlier in the evening also warned event-goers against disrupting the worship service, so this constituted his second warning. But that did not stop Barbieri—whose character on Kimmel’s show is “Jake Byrd”—from disrupting the event and being escorted out by police.
Kimmel bragged about the insult to Christians on Twitter too:
Now, for the first time since the incident, Moore’s team is fired up and fighting back calling out the elites. In addition to Messer’s above comments, he added in an email to Breitbart News that Kimmel should come down to Alabama himself rather sending one of his lackeys down here.
“If Kimmel wants to mock our Christian values, he should come down here and do it man to man instead of hiding behind a camera in Hollywood,” Messer said. “And yes, Jimmy, we will still rebuild our military, build the wall, protect our gun rights, reform our tax code, and support President Trump whether you like that or not. Hollywood will not bully us around.”
Fellow senior Moore adviser Brett Doster bashed Kimmel for enabling Hollywood’s culture of preying on women as seen by the recent downfalls of Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey.
“Last night, Jimmy Kimmel sent one of his goons to disrupt an Alabama worship service as a comedy prop,” Doster said in an email to Breitbart News. “For years, Kimmel hosted a show that exploited women and encouraged sexual impropriety. He and the rest of the entertainment industry look down their noses at our evangelical values while using their own pulpit to encourage the very behavior purveyed by monsters like Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey.”
It remains to be seen whether Kimmel will have the guts to face Moore’s team head-on in Alabama, and own up to the actions of his staff. A Kimmel publicist has not responded to Breitbart News when asked via email whether Kimmel or Barbieri would be willing to defend themselves in an interview.
UPDATE 3:53 P.M. CT:
After publication of this article, the battle between Kimmel and Moore intensified on Twitter, as Moore Tweeted this article at Kimmel inviting him to take his cause to Alabama to fight him “man to man.”
https://twitter.com/MooreSenate/status/936315009424031746
Kimmel replied with yet another attack on Christians in Alabama, mocking them for not having Christian values.
Moore fired back, standing up to the “bigotry” of coastal elites like Kimmel against southern conservative Christians in Alabama:
https://twitter.com/MooreSenate/status/936347050614108162
Kimmel replied that he would come after all:
The war between Kimmel and Moore comes as Moore is set to speak at another church service outside Birmingham in Dora, Alabama, on Thursday evening. But those two were not the only ones weighing in. Others had lots of comments about this as well:
https://twitter.com/pnehlen/status/936336015094177792
https://twitter.com/Cernovich/status/936337230800420864
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