Barack Obama slams “dangerous” cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel
Barack Obama has rushed to the defence of Jimmy Kimmel after ABC announced Jimmy Kimmel Live had been suspended indefinitely.
ABC made the announcement on September 17th before his nightly show was due to air in light of comments he made in the past week following the death of Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk.
On September 15th’s edition of Jimmy Kimmel Live, the comedian said of the response from Donald Trump supporters to Kirk’s passing: “The MAGA Gang desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
Kimmel also condemned Trump’s personal reaction to Kirk’s death, saying, “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he calls a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.”
Additionally, Kimmel claimed on September 16th that “many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalise on the murder of Charlie Kirk”. He also took shots at JD Vance, who hosted The Charlie Kirk Show earlier this week and blamed the far left for the rise in political violence, by highlighting the January 6th riots.
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Now, Obama has wrote on X in support of Kimmel, “After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.”
The former president continued, “This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent — and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.”
However, the current president, Donald Trump, took pleasure in ABC’s decision. He first wrote on Truth Social that “Kimmel has ZERO talent” and also said, “Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done.”
At a press conference in the United Kingdom alongside Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump doubled down on this statement by sharing to ITV’s Robert Peston, “(Kimmel) said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk. You can call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent.”
Kimmel is yet to comment directly on his suspension, and it remains unclear whether Jimmy Kimmel Live! will return to ABC.
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