“It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination – and they know that,” Jimmy Kimmel said in his Monday night monologue, referring to the joke that had President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump calling for his job that morning. “I’ve been very vocal for many years, speaking out about gun violence in particular.”
Monday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” felt like just another exchange of words between the Clark High School graduate and owner of Jimmy Kimmel’s Comedy Club at the Linq Promenade and the man he often criticizes. Kimmel didn’t come across as a man in the middle of a firestorm.
“You know, 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?” he joked to open the show.
Early Monday, Melania Trump posted a statement on her X account calling Kimmel a “coward” and saying his “hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country.” Elsewhere, the statement said, “It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community.”
That came in response to a joke Kimmel told on Thursday’s episode during what was described as an alternate version of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
“Look at Melania, so beautiful,” Kimmel said during the roast. “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
“Again, this was Thursday,” he said during Monday’s monologue, “and there was no big reaction to it until this morning when I greeted the day facing yet another Twitter vomit storm.”
The real White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was interrupted Saturday when authorities say Cole Tomas Allen tried to storm the event.
“A day later,” President Trump wrote in a Monday Truth Social post, mistaking when the Kimmel episode aired, “a lunatic tried entering the ballroom of the White House Correspondents Dinner, loaded up with a shotgun, handgun, and many knives.”
Calling the joke a “despicable call to violence,” the president added, “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
“It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am,” Kimmel clarified Monday night.
“And also, I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do,” Kimmel added, addressing the first lady. “And I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.”
Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567.
