Jimmy Kimmel is defending his Melania Trump comments after she and President Donald Trump demanded he be fired by ABC.
During his monologue on the Monday, Apr. 27 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the late-night host addressed the controversy for the first time and said, “You know how sometimes you wake up in the morning and the first lady puts out a statement demanding you be fired from your job? We’ve all been there, right?”
The Trumps urged the network to axe Kimmel earlier that morning after he jokingly said the first lady had a “glow like an expectant widow” two days before the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
The comment occurred during the Thursday, Apr. 23 episode of the show—two days before the actual event—when the comedian presented an “alternative” White House Correspondents’ Dinner monologue.
The segment was set up as if Kimmel was in the Washington Hilton ballroom and the president, first lady, and other administration officials were there.
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“There was no big reaction to it until this morning, when I greeted the day facing yet another Twitter vomit storm and a call to fire me from our first lady,” Kimmel said in his monologue on Monday. “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. It was not—by any stretch of the definition—a call to assassination. And they know that. I’ve been very vocal for many years, speaking out against gun violence, in particular.”
“But I understand that the first lady had a stressful experience over the weekend, and probably every weekend is pretty stressful in that house,” he continued. “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. Donald Trump is allowed to say whatever he wants to say, as are you and as am I. Because under the First Amendment, we have, as Americans, a right to free speech.”
Kimmel then condemned the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, but denied that his comments had anything to do with.
He then played a clip of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying before the event that “there will be some shots fired tonight,” presumably referring to the jokes Trump had prepared for the event.
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