hit below the belt

They ceded that ground to comedians, especially ones who hit below the belt and shrug off protests about their cruelty by decrying cancel culture and supposed “wokeness.”

Asked in a 2021 interview with NPR if 209 Times had at times hit “below the belt,” Sanchez did not disagree but added: “There’s never been a time it wasn’t warranted.”

Instead, the president hit below the belt.

Guess you could say this sanction hit below the belt.

But he also was denigrated as a gut fighter who hit below the belt.