President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are calling on ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel for what they call “hateful and violent rhetoric.” Before the latest attempt on the President’s life, Kimmel had referred to Melania as displaying “the glow of an expectant widow.”
Kimmel delivered his death joke about the President while mocking the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, just two nights before a would-be assassin tried to murder the President for the third time in two years.
President Trump said Kimmel’s words were “beyond the pale.”
And Melania released a statement saying, “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.”
Kimmel claims the joke was only about the first couple’s age difference, saying it was “not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination.”
Then he tried to flip the story and blame President Trump. “I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject,” Kimmel said Monday night. “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.”
Last year, ABC suspended Kimmel and some of the network’s affiliates made moves to take him off the air after he joked about the assassination of conservative Christian leader Charlie Kirk.
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In light of Kimmel’s track record of vitriolic comments, the Trumps are calling on ABC and parent company Disney to pull Kimmel from the air once again.
“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,” the First Lady’s statement said. “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.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also weighed in, saying this is not an isolated incident, accusing Democrats and the media of comments and coverage that have “helped to legitimize this violence.”
“Who in their right mind says a wife would be glowing over the potential murder of her beloved husband?” Leavitt said.
