Sean Hannity: Jon Stewart 'has his head so far up Obama's a*s he cannot see clearly'

Fox News host Sean Hannity and his Daily Show counterpart, Jon Stewart, engaged in another war of words on Tuesday, Politico reported.

"Jon's problem is he has his head so far up [President Barack] Obama's a*s he cannot see clearly," Hannity said in a statement. "He is obviously better suited to reading his joke writers material, and making his clapping seal audience happy."

The latest clash between Stewart and Hannity began when Stewart criticized the Fox host in an interview with Rolling Stone that touched on Stewart's views on both Hannity's colleague Bill O'Reilly and Fox News itself.

"Sean Hannity is probably the most loathsome dude over there," Stewart said. "That's just pure cynicism, and it's horrible. Everything is presented in as devious a manner as it could be possibly be presented."

Stewart was more complimentary of O'Reilly, saying that conservative philosophy had tilted so far to the right that the Factor host almost looked like a "Kennedy Democrat" by comparison.

"He reminds me of everybody I grew up with," Stewart said of O'Reilly. "I have real affection for where I grew up, though I disagree with many of the people, and it helps me understand that I have to remain open to argument and contact. People say, 'Why do you have him on? He's evil!' But I don't think he's evil. He has a viewpoint. It's pretty rigid. It's dogma. I don't think it's informed, but he argues it well. He has a sense of humor about it."

However, Stewart said he did not plan to invite Hannity onto his show for a discussion.

"That's probably a shortcoming, but I have no interest in that," he conceded. "I probably should. It would be interesting, I guess."

Hannity responded by mockingly saying he was waiting for Stewart to invite "Fatwah supporter Cat Stevens" to another "rally for sanity" event, a reference to the singer, now known as Yusuf Islam. Hannity had brought up Islam's threat against novelist Salman Rushdie this past April.

Stewart responded by calling Hannity out for the hypocrisy of criticizing Islam while promoting far-right rocker Ted Nugent as a "friend of the show."

On Tuesday, Hannity referred to Obama as Stewart's "beloved president," and slammed his record.

"Do I even need to remind him about keeping our doctors, our health plans and saving money?" he told Politico. "And how is that healthcare website working out? Or Iraq, Isis, the 'Russian reset'?"

The mutual disdain between the two received wider attention earlier this year, when Stewart called Hannity "the Arby's of news" over his support of anti-government rancher Cliven Bundy. Hannity then insisted he was arguing in favor of "proportionality" from federal officials trying to seize Bundy's cattle for his refusal to pay federal grazing fees.