Hours after the president and first lady called for Jimmy Kimmel’s ouster, the late-night host defended the joke that sparked their ire in the wake of an assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
Days before an armed man charged a security checkpoint at Saturday’s dinner, Kimmel aired a skit on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” mocking the annual dinner and addressing the first lady. “You have a glow like an expectant widow,” he said on Thursday’s show.
The jibe “obviously was a joke about their age difference,” Kimmel said on his show Monday night, before adding sarcastically, “and the look of joy we see on her face every time they’re together.”
During his monologue Monday, Kimmel noted that the joke from the “pretend roast” came under intense scrutiny only after the shooting. “It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination, and they know that,” Kimmel continued. “I’ve been very vocal for many years, speaking out against gun violence.”
Cole Tomas Allen, 31, was charged Monday with attempting to assassinate the president, as well as firearm offenses.
Kimmel said he was sorry the Trumps and anyone else had to experience the shooting, calling it "traumatic and scary" even though no one was killed.
The president earlier in the day had expressed outrage directed at the comedian.
“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,” the president wrote in part on his social media platform Truth Social. “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
On X, the first lady said, "“People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.” She also called on ABC to "take a stand," saying the comedian "hides" behind the network.
ABC and Disney did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
The president has long bristled at the otherwise customary joking at his expense by celebrity comedians.
He previously called for Kimmel's ouster and, in September, ABC briefly suspended his late-night program following comments about the political motivations of the man accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah.
Kimmel returned to the airwaves nearly a week later and said he never intended to "make light of the murder of a young man," referring to Kirk.
On Monday, he defended his right to lampoon the first couple as protected speech: “As Americans, we have a right to free speech."
