It turns out GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore's most vocal defender at a church event in Alabama Wednesday night was Jake Byrd, a character played by comedian Tony Barbieri on Jimmy Kimmel Live. "He's a man's man!" Byrd can be heard yelling after a member of the audience asks why Moore and his defenders think the entire town of Gadsden is lying about Moore harassing teenage girls when he was a 30-something county prosecutor. Byrd's role as a super-enthusiastic Moore fan appeared to confuse Moore on Wednesday night, before police escorted Byrd out, but by Thursday morning, Moore had caught on and started a Twitter fight with Jimmy Kimmel.
Kimmel played highlights of Byrd's performance at the Moore event on Thursday's Kimmel Live, plus interviews with Moore supporters that Byrd crashed, getting them to high-five him for damning defenses of Moore's alleged conduct. You can watch the stunt that started the feud below. Peter Weber
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
How should you navigate debt when dating?The Explainer Three steps you can take to ensure your credit card or student loan debt won't become a dating dealbreaker
-
'It's not hard to imagine how such an arrangement can go wrong'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Pope Francis hospitalized with 'complex' illnessSpeed Read The Vatican says their leader has a respiratory infection, raising new concerns about his health
-
Giant schnauzer wins top prize at Westminster showSpeed Read Monty won best in show at the 149th Westminster Kennel Club dog show
-
Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar take top GrammysSpeed Read Beyoncé took home album of the year for 'Cowboy Carter' and Kendrick Lamar's diss track 'Not Like Us' won five awards
-
The Louvre is giving 'Mona Lisa' her own roomSpeed Read The world's most-visited art museum is getting a major renovation
-
Honda and Nissan in merger talksSpeed Read The companies are currently Japan's second and third-biggest automakers, respectively
-
Taylor Swift wraps up record-shattering Eras tourSpeed Read The pop star finally ended her long-running tour in Vancouver, Canada
-
Drake claims illegal boosting, defamationSpeed Read The rapper accused Universal Music of boosting Kendrick Lamar's diss track and said UMG allowed him to be falsely accused of pedophilia
-
'Wicked' and 'Gladiator II' ignite holiday box officeSpeed Read The combination of the two movies revitalized a struggling box office
-
Jussie Smollet conviction overturned on appealSpeed Read The Illinois Supreme Court overturned the actor's conviction on charges of staging a racist and homophobic attack against himself in 2019
