Jimmy Kimmel
On Tuesday night, comedian Jimmy Kimmel returned to his ABC television show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, after being suspended for six days due to pressure from Donald Trump and his Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman, Brendan Carr. Here is the YouTube video of Kimmel’s emotional monologue upon his return.
By now, most people are probably familiar with the timeline of what happened that led to Kimmel’s suspension:
–On September 10, Republican activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk was killed by a sniper. It was not immediately clear whether the shooter acted primarily out of political malice, and if so, whether he is on the left, right or center of the political spectrum.
–On September 15, Kimmel stated in his opening monologue that:
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.
Note that Kimmel did not say the shooter was a Republican, only that Republicans were trying to disavow the shooter as one of theirs. That was true: Republicans hit the airwaves after Kirk’s shooting, accusing the killer of being a pro-trans leftist. From there, according to NPR:
On Kirk’s podcast last week, [U.S. Vice President JD] Vance said political violence is “not a both-sides problem” and blamed the “incredibly destructive movement of left-wing extremism” for the attack allegedly carried out by a lone shooter.
Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller suggested that the federal government would “identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy” left-wing networks that he blamed without evidence for fomenting violence, and Trump vowed to label the nebulous left-wing “antifa” ideological movement a “major terrorist organization.”
Kimmel’s September 15 monologue also mocked Donald Trump:
“In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving on Friday,” he said. “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.”
He then played a clip of President Trump responding to a question about how he was coping with Kirk’s death. Trump replied:
“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.”
As studio laughter faded, Kimmel joked about the president’s response:
“Yes, he’s at the fourth stage of grief: construction. This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend.”
These statements led to threats by FCC Chairman Carr two days later:
“Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” he said to podcaster Benny Johnson on Wednesday. “These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action on Kimmel or, you know, there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
As a result, ABC, owned by the Walt Disney Company, caved to the Trump administration and suspended Kimmel “indefinitely.” However, this led to a tremendous economic backlash by Disney customers, many of whom canceled their Disney Plus, Disney-owned Hulu, and 80 percent Disney-owned ESPN streaming services. There were also protests outside of Disney’s studios, pledges by consumers not to visit Disney’s theme parks or to watch ABC programming, and high-profile criticism across a broad range, from former Disney CEO Michael Eisner to conservative Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz. Apparently impacted heavily by this growing boycott, Disney relented and reinstated Kimmel this week.
Many people were wondering whether Kimmel’s reinstatement would be conditional, and whether he would be forced to apologize for his previous remarks. Kimmel’s statements on Tuesday night, while not an apology, could be seen as slightly backing off his original monologues. He blamed the killing on “a deeply disturbed individual,” rather than trying to tie Kirk’s shooter to the Republicans in any way.
Nevertheless, Kimmel staunchly defended the First Amendment in his monologue, stating that:
I want to thank the people who don’t support my show and what I believe, but support my right to share those beliefs anyway.
Kimmel also continued to go after Donald Trump as sharply as ever:
The president of the United States made it very clear he wants to see me, and the hundreds of people who work here, fired from our jobs. Our leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can’t take a joke.
This time, it appears, the people, and the Constitution, won.
Photo by globochem3x1minus1, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/F0ouqu
