Jimmy Kimmel is clapping back at Melania and Donald Trump’s own clap-backs at the late-night host, demanding ABC kick him to the curb.
“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?” Kimmel joked at the start of Monday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live.
At issue is the “alternative” White House Correspondents’ Dinner Kimmel staged on Thursday night’s show. Responding to the White House Correspondent’s Association breaking with tradition and not hiring a comedian to poke fun at the president and his administration at its annual fundraising dinner, Kimmel performed a mock roast, juxtaposed with “reactions” pulled from stock footage of the Trumps, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vanilla Ice, Dog the Bounty Hunter, and more. Among the jokes was one about the first lady having “a glow like an expectant widow.”
Two days later, the actual correspondents dinner was interrupted when an alleged gunman opened fire at the Washington Hilton, where the event was being held.
Before Monday’s new Kimmel Live, the first lady spoke out against the late-night host’s “hateful and violent rhetoric” and demanded that ABC “take a stand.”
“His words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America,” she wrote on social media. “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. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community.”
But Kimmel shrugged off Melania’s incensed rhetoric during Monday’s monologue, sharing his gratitude that “no one was hurt” at the Correspondents’ Dinner, “thank goodness,” and offering an explanation for his “widow” joke.
