The Trump administration is doubling down on demanding that Disney-owned ABC fire Jimmy Kimmel after he responded to the backlash from his controversial joke last week.
In his mock White House Correspondents’ Association dinner skit, the late-night host made a joke at the expense of first lady Melania Trump.
“Look at Melania. So beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,” he said. “Melania’s birthday is on Sunday. That’s right, she’s planning to celebrate at home the same way she always does, looking out a window and whispering, ‘What have I done?’”
The skit was aired just days before the actual correspondents’ dinner, where a gunman reportedly exchanged gunfire with Secret Service agents inside the Washington Hilton Hotel. Cole Tomas Allen was arraigned on Monday in the federal Washington, D.C., court, where he was charged with attempted assassination of a president.
The first lady, who was at the event Saturday night, did not find Kimmel’s joke humorous.
“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn’t comedy — his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America,” she said in a post on X. “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate. A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him. Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community?”
President Donald Trump also called on ABC to fire the late-night comedian in a Monday post on Truth Social:
“I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
But Monday night, Kimmel said people misinterpreted the joke.
“Obviously, (it) was a joke about their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they’re together. It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am,” he said.
“It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination,” Kimmel added. “I understand that the first lady had a stressful experience over the weekend, and probably every weekend is pretty stressful in that house. And also, I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do, and I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.”
White House communications director Steven Cheung was not satisfied with Kimmel’s remarks.
“Jimmy Kimmel is a (expletive) human being for: No. 1. Making a disgusting joke about assassinating the President No. 2. Doubling down on that joke instead of doing the decent thing by apologizing ABC needs to fire him immediately and he should be shunned for the rest of his life,” he posted on X.
Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee implied that politics plays a role in Kimmel’s immunity from facing backlash from ABC in a post on X:
“Imagine if Jimmy Kimmel were a Republican and President Trump were a Democrat. Kimmel’s termination wouldn’t even be a question.”
Kimmel argued that, like the president, he has freedom of speech and therefore can say what he likes on his show.
“Donald Trump is allowed to say whatever he wants to say, as are you and as am I, as are all of us, because under the First Amendment, we have as Americans a right to free speech,” he said.
He also said that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt shares the same rights, even though she told a reporter before the event began, “There will be some shots fired tonight,” referring to Trump’s first comments at the press.
Actor and longtime Trump critic George Clooney also came to the defense of Kimmel.
“Jimmy’s a comedian,” Clooney told a reporter Monday night, “and I would argue that Karoline Leavitt didn’t mean shots should be fired, right? She was making a joke. Fair enough. So I look at that side and go, well, jokes are jokes, but the rhetoric, I think, is a little dangerous, and we’ve seen it a lot lately.”