Hitch Gone Wild

HANNITY: Let's look at the thoughtlessness and the mean-spiritedness of your very remarks that you made about Reverend Falwell.

HITCHENS: By all means.

HANNITY: You think it's a pity that there isn't a hell for him to go to, you said.

HITCHENS: Yes, I do.

HANNITY: On his death, you write, "The discovery of the carcass of Reverend Falwell on the floor of his obscure office is, you know, almost zero significance except for perhaps two categories of people," et cetera. You also say -- you also say the evil he did will live after him.

HITCHENS: Yes.

HANNITY: I knew Reverend Falwell, Christopher. I know the good work that this man has done.

HITCHENS: Tell me about it.

HANNITY: Well...

HITCHENS: Takes a lot to make me cry.

HANNITY: I know you think you're the smartest guy in the room, but you sound like a jackass when you attack his family like this. But I know...

HITCHENS: I didn't attack his family. Excuse me.

HANNITY: ... what he did for unwed mothers. I know what he did for alcoholics. I know what he did for drug addicts.

HITCHENS: Excuse me, sir.

HANNITY: Yes.

HITCHENS: I did not attack his family. And no fair-minded viewer of yours will say it....

HANNITY: I think you are incredibly mean, incredibly selfish and thoughtless.

HITCHENS: You invited me, sir, to give my opinion of the controversy (ph). I give it to you, and you say, well, that might upset his family. I said it while he was alive. That might have upset his family, too.

HANNITY: You have your hostility towards religion, and that's without saying. You know, I just wonder, you know, when you compare his life, you know, there are a lot of good atheists. Communists out there like Stalin and Mao and Pol Pot. And, you know, they slaughtered millions. Jerry Falwell slaughtered nobody in his life. He may have misspoke once or twice. But he devoted his life, to his religion. You have nothing good to say about him at all?

HITCHENS: No. I repeat. Jerry Falwell lived on hatred and superstition and indignity. He preached dislike of people whose lives he knew nothing about.