Kimmel: ‘Widow’ joke was based on Trump age, not ‘call to assassination’ – Yahoo News UK
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel is pushing back after President Trump and first lady Melania Trump demanded he be fired over an “expectant widow” joke made days before the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner.
The comedian clarified that the quip was about their age difference, not a call to violence.
“It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am,” Kimmel said during his opening monologue on Monday night. The president is 79 and the first lady is 56.
“It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination, and they know that,” he added. “I’ve been very vocal for many years, speaking out against gun violence in particular.”
Kimmel held a mock roast on his show last Thursday, in which he joked that the first lady has the “glow” of “an expectant widow.” The episode aired two days before a gunman opened fire after rushing security at the Washington Hilton, striking a Secret Service agent, who was uninjured. No one inside the black-tie affair was hurt.
Authorities said the suspect, 31-year-old Cole Allen, was targeting administration officials in the incident. He was charged with attempting to assassinate the president and other firearm-related offenses.
The first lady blasted Kimmel as a “coward” on Monday and called on ABC to “take a stand.”
“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 statement posted on social media. “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”
The president said the joke was “really shocking,” renewing his calls for Kimmel to be taken off the air.
“Wow, Jimmy Kimmel, who is in no way funny as attested to by his terrible Television Ratings, made a statement on his Show that is really shocking,” President Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Monday.
“He was there for a very obvious and sinister reason,” he continued, referencing the alleged gunman. “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.”
Disney, ABC’s parent company, had not responded as of early Tuesday.
Kimmel acknowledged in his monologue on Monday that the experience was “traumatic and scary” for those attending the dinner, including the first lady, but he argued calls to tone down the rhetoric should also be directed at the president.
“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,” he said. “Because I also should point out: 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.”
“But with that said, I am sorry that you and the president and everyone in that room on Saturday went through that, I really am,” Kimmel continued. “Just because no one got killed doesn’t mean it wasn’t traumatic and scary, and we should come together and be best. We really should.”
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