Topline
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel on Monday night pushed back against criticism of a joke he made last week, where he said First Lady Melania Trump had “a glow like an expectant widow,” saying it was a reference to her age difference with President Donald Trump and not a call for his assassination.
Jimmy Kimmel responded to calls from President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for him to be fired in his monologue on Monday.
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Key Facts
Kimmel opened his monologue joking about waking up to the first lady issuing a statement “demanding you be fired from your job,” and described her reaction as a “Twitter vomit storm.”
The late-night host addressed the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, saying, “no one was hurt, thank goodness,” and a lot of people were “shaken up.”
Addressing the criticism, Kimmel said the “expectant widow” joke was “obviously…about their age difference” and “not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination.”
Kimmel said he agrees with the first lady’s comments about rejecting “hateful and violent rhetoric” and added that he thinks a great place to start dialing that back “would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.”
Kimmel then quipped that if people believe his joke had an effect on what happened at the dinner, “then maybe someone should look into this psychic lady,” before cutting to footage of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt talking up the president’s planned speech and saying, “there’ll be some shots fired tonight.”
Crucial Quote
Addressing Trump’s push to build the White House ballroom in response to the shooting, Kimmel said: “One thing about Donald Trump, there’s nothing he can’t turn into a real estate opportunity. He immediately turned this into an argument in favor of his ballroom. He wrote, ‘This event would never have happened with the militarily top secret ballroom currently under construction at the White House.’ I hate to be the bearer of bad news. I’m afraid that the top-secret ballroom is no longer top-secret.”
What Do We Know About Kimmel’s Correspondent’s Dinner Skit?
In a segment of his show that aired last week, Kimmel parodied the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. In the segment, Kimmel joked about Trump’s purported health problems and his past ties with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Kimmel then mentioned the first lady and said, “Look at her. So beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
How Did Melania Trump React?
While Kimmel’s skit went unaddressed for a few days after airing, on Monday the first lady mentioned it in a post on X, saying: “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. People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate. A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him. Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand.”
What Did Trump Say About Kimmel?
A short while after the first lady’s post, Trump called for Kimmel to be fired in a Truth Social post, reiterating a demand he has made several times over the past year. Trump wrote: “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. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
Tangent
Mentalist Oz Pearlman, who was the headline performer at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner, was scheduled to appear as a guest on Kimmel’s show on Monday night. The LateNighter reported that ABC quietly replaced Pearlman with Pod Save America host John Lovett. CNN’s Brian Stelter reported that the mentalist was supposed to discuss his performance at the dinner, “but since that performance didn’t happen, Pearlman pulled out.”
Further Reading
Melania Trump Accuses Jimmy Kimmel Of ‘Hateful And Violent Rhetoric’ (Forbes)
Trump Calls For Kimmel’s Firing Over ‘Expectant Widow’ Joke (Forbes)
