Jimmy Kimmel slams Trump once more after FCC opens overview of ABC TV licenses
Jimmy Kimmel doubled down on his criticism of President Trump after the president known as for his firing and the Federal Communications Fee opened an investigation into ABC’s TV licenses.
Throughout the Tuesday monologue of his late-night present “Jimmy Kimmel Stay!,” Kimmel flashed a clip of Trump apologizing for the primary woman for possible being unable to match his dad and mom’ 63-year marriage.
“Wait a minute, did he simply make a joke about his demise?” Kimmel mentioned. “Solely Donald Trump would demand I be fired for making a joke about his outdated age after which, a day later, exit and make a joke about his personal outdated age.”
The joke got here the identical day that the FCC chairman Brendan Carr launched a probe of ABC’s broadcast TV licenses.
The overview is an extension of an FCC probe launched final March into the range, fairness and inclusion initiatives of ABC-parent Disney.
The timing of the overview — being so near Kimmel’s newest beef with the president — is “coincidental,” a supply with data instructed The Wall Avenue Journal.
President Trump mentioned on Monday that the host of “Jimmy Kimmel Stay!” ought to be fired for remarks he made days previous to a capturing at Saturday’s White Home Correspondents’ Dinner.
On his April 23 present, Kimmel offered a mock White Home Correspondents’ Dinner speech the place he joked that the primary woman had “a glow like an expectant widow.”
He mentioned in his monologue final Thursday: “Our first woman, Melania, is right here. Have a look at Melania, so lovely. Mrs. Trump, you could have a glow like an expectant widow.”
The primary woman slammed Kimmel, calling him a “coward” on X, within the days after the correspondents’ dinner.
“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is meant to divide our nation. His monologue about my household isn’t comedy- his phrases are corrosive and deepens the political illness inside America,” she wrote on Monday.
The suspected shooter, Cole Allen, has been charged with making an attempt to assassinate Trump, together with different counts. Trump known as for Kimmel’s firing on Monday, after Melania spoke out.
Kimmel pushed again on the criticism of his joke, saying: “It wasn’t by any stretch of the definition a name to assassination they usually know that. I’ve been very vocal for a few years talking out in opposition to gun violence specifically.”
In its order Tuesday, the FCC’s Media bureau mentioned it has been investigating the stations for “violations of the Communications Act of 1934 and the FCC’s guidelines, together with the company’s prohibition on illegal discrimination” linked to DEI initiatives.
The FCC mentioned ABC has till Might 28 to file its early license renewals.
“We’re assured that report demonstrates our continued {qualifications} as licensees beneath the Communications Act and the First Modification and are ready to point out that by means of the suitable authorized channels,” a Disney rep mentioned Tuesday. “Our focus stays, as all the time, on serving viewers within the native communities the place our stations function.”
It’s uncommon for the FCC to launch an early overview of broadcast licenses. Based on The Journal, the final time the FCC revoked a broadcast license associated to a station’s programming was in 1969, when a Jackson, Miss., station misplaced its license for defending segregation on the air.
Disney owns eight ABC TV shops in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The licenses for these stations come up for renewal between 2028 and 2031.
Kimmel had beforehand been on the recent seat over his monologue.
Final September, Kimmel was taken off the air for every week following backlash from associates within the wake of his feedback about conservative activist Charlie Kirk following his assassination.
The week-long suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Stay!” prompted widespread boycotts of Disney, with liberals accusing it of violating the First Modification.
Kimmel refused to apologize when he returned to the air on Sept. 23, however mentioned: “It was by no means my intention to make gentle of a homicide of a younger man. I don’t assume there’s something humorous about it.”
