Jimmy Kimmel became the latest casualty in President Donald Trump’s war on the media on Wednesday when news broke that ABC would be putting the comedian’s late night show on hold indefinitely. And if you’re trying to figure out what Kimmel said that was so offensive, you’re not alone.
I watched every monologue that Kimmel has delivered on his ABC show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, since Charlie Kirk was murdered in Utah on Sept. 10. I was expecting there to be something shocking that would at least warrant legitimate controversy. But there was nothing. In fact, it was difficult for me to identify the specific moment Kimmel supposedly crossed the line.
As it turns out, the portion of Kimmel’s broadcast that Trump supporters are using as the pretext for his cancellation is only about one minute long. It aired Monday, Sept. 15, and you can watch it for yourself below.
A transcript of the offending clip:
Kimmel: We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it. In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving. On Friday the White House flew the flags at half staff, which got some criticism, but on a human level, you can see how hard the president is taking this.
[Video clip of Trump and a reporter outside the White House]
Reporter: My condolences on the loss of your friend, Charlie Kirk. May I ask, sir, personally, how are you holding up over the last day and a half, sir?
Trump: I think very good. And by the way, right there, you see all the trucks? They’ve just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House, which is something they’ve been trying to get, as you know, for about 150 years, and it’s gonna be a beauty.
Kimmel: Yes, he’s at the fourth stage of grief, construction. There’s demolition… construction… This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a four year old mourns a goldfish, okay?
Online, the MAGA crowd claims Kimmel called the person who allegedly killed Kirk, Tyler Robinson, a Trump supporter. But if you listen to what Kimmel actually said, he wasn’t even necessarily calling the guy MAGA. Right-wing pundits and online commentators were indeed trying to defend against charges that the guy was a Trump supporter over the weekend. And by most indications from the indictment, he wasn’t.
You need to read Kimmel’s comments in the most critical way possible to concoct a justification for his cancellation. But even if he had explicitly said “this guy is MAGA,” and got it wrong, that’s still clearly not the reason Kimmel was targeted by Trump.
Trump knows exactly what he’s doing
Kimmel’s ouster wasn’t a surprise if you read the unhinged screeds of President Trump on Truth Social. After news broke in July that CBS was cancelling Stephen Colbert’s show after his contract runs out in the spring, Trump celebrated and said Kimmel would be next.
“I absolutely love that Colbert’ [sic] got fired,” Trump wrote July 18. “His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show.”
On July 29, Trump wrote that he wasn’t “solely responsible” for Colbert getting fired, an implicit acknowledgement that he took some credit. And on Wednesday, Trump celebrated ABC’s decision, saying that Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers at NBC were next.
“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED,” Trump posted Wednesday. “Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!! President DJT”
Trump was ‘almost presidential’
Beyond the one minute of offending material from Kimmel, the entire monologue is on YouTube, and you can watch how the comedian goes on to poke more fun at Trump. And it’s classic Kimmel, who has really leaned into ridiculing Trump’s words and actions since the start of the president’s second term.
Kimmel first jokes about the fact that Trump was asked about “his friend Charlie Kirk,” only to pivot to other topics like the construction of a ballroom at the White House. And Trump appeared on Fox & Friends, where he also talked about Kirk. Kimmel actually gave him credit for briefly being “almost presidential” for saying that Kirk would want people to “take it to the ballot box.” But then Trump started spouting more nonsense about California not having ballot boxes, prompting more ridicule from Kimmel.
If you watch the entire monologue from Sept. 15, it’s all extremely tame. And funny. Trump really doesn’t like it when the focus is on anyone else, which is clearly why the president tried to divert attention from Kirk’s murder to something that Trump was doing, namely building a ballroom.
The FCC and our authoritarian future
The tipping point for Kimmel’s ouster apparently came Wednesday morning, when FCC chairman Brendan Carr appeared on the internet show of MAGA influencer Benny Johnson. The 39-year-old influencer, who was fired from BuzzFeed for plagiarism in 2014 and has spread conspiracy theories about Democratic figures like Barack Obama, called Kimmel’s comments a “malicious lie” and a clear-cut violation against FCC policy around “news distortion.” Never mind the fact that Kimmel isn’t a news broadcaster; he’s a comedian.
Johnson characterized Kimmel’s comments as “making fun of Charlie Kirk’s political assassination,” an obviously bad-faith claim. But Carr agreed, calling Kimmel’s comments “some of the sickest conduct possible.”
Carr went on to say that, “there are avenues here for the FCC,” to take action, insisting that “I don’t think this is an isolated incident.”
“Frankly, when you see stuff like this, I mean, we can do this the easy way or these companies can find ways to change conduct… to take action, frankly, on Kimmel or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead,” said Carr.
The message to ABC was clear. A government official was using the same tone as an old-fashioned mobster, that something needed to change at the network to appease Trump. And change it did.
ABC freaks out
Carr’s appearance kicked off a discussion at Disney, which owns ABC, where CEO Robert A. Iger and TV chief Dana Walden reportedly made the call to pull the plug on Kimmel, according to the New York Times. ABC hasn’t released a public statement, but a representative gave Vulture a one-line statement: “Jimmy Kimmel Live! will be preempted indefinitely.”
And ABC was also feeling heat from local TV owners. Sinclair, which owns many ABC-affiliate stations, released a statement Wednesday that called for Kimmel to directly apologize to Kirk’s family and make a “meaningful personal donation to Turning Point USA.” The company also said it wouldn’t put Kimmel’s show back on the air until it had formal discussions about ABC’s “commitment to professionalism and accountability.” Sinclair announced it would be airing a special tribute to Charlie Kirk in Kimmel’s time slot.
Carr appeared on CNBC on Thursday morning and insisted that there was nothing wrong with Sinclair demanding that Kimmel donate to a right-wing political organization.
Nexstar, which also owns ABC-affiliate stations, said it wouldn’t air Kimmel anymore either. As it happens, Nexstar announced in August that it wants to buy a rival TV company, Tegna, for $6.2 billion. That deal needs approval from Carr and the FCC.
The critics aren’t playing the clip
One of the most interesting things you may have noticed on TV coverage of the Kimmel controversy is that they don’t play the clip of what the late night host said. For example, during Carr’s 16-minute appearance on CNBC they never even quote Kimmel directly, instead just taking it for granted that he must have said something highly offensive.
CNBC host David Faber pointed out that Kimmel is a comedian and joking about the president is something late night hosts have been doing for decades. When Carr pushed back that Kimmel was doing something beyond the pale, Faber strangely said that he couldn’t defend what Kimmel had said.
“I don’t think anybody’s going to try and defend what Kimmel said and I certainly defer to the decision-making of the company itself in terms of saying this was beyond the bounds,” Faber said.
“But I do wonder, and I think many people do, whether you really are just targeting comedians who typically, through the years, have made fun of political figures in a way that, because the president simply is offended by it,” Faber continued.
But, again, CNBC never played the clip of Kimmel. Viewers who haven’t seen the clip would just assume it must have been something horrifying.
It’s going to get worse
Whatever pretext folks on the right are using for all of this, the goal is to shut people up. Kat Tenbarge, a tech reporter who worked at NBC News before going independent, wrote on Bluesky on Thursday that, for the first time in her career, an academic turned down her interview request out of fear about what the government might do.
All eyes are on Kimmel today, but this is a much larger issue across the entire government. During a hearing on Wednesday about the recent purge of scientific experts by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the public heard from Debra Houry, a former CDC official. She said that her staff were terrified after a shooting at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta last month.
“I have many that won’t speak about vaccines now and remove their names off of papers,” Houry said. “They don’t wish to present publicly anymore because they feel they were personally targeted because of misinformation.”
Trump is sending ICE to kidnap people in American cities and deport them to countries where they’ve never lived; he’s effectively taking control of private companies, from Intel to TikTok; and he’s profiting from his position through lucrative deals in crypto.
The average American sees late-night hosts getting booted from the airwaves on the president’s orders, and most people assume it won’t have much impact on their own lives. But that’s where they’re wrong.
Trump is just going to keep making his way down the list of targets. First, it’s late-night hosts and a $15 billion lawsuit against the New York Times, and installing a babysitter at CBS News to make sure they don’t say mean things about the president. But given enough time, no one escapes a tyrant’s wrath.
If you dislike Trump, you may not be high on the list of people his goons will come after. But everyone who opposes Trump, no matter how big or small, is on the list.
Read the full article here
