JIMMY Kimmel has been indefinitely suspended from his late-night show after joking about Donald Trump’s reaction to Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Here’s the exact monologue that appeared to lead ABC to pull the 57-year-old Jimmy Kimmel Live! host off the air.
Jimmy Kimmel was suspended from his late-night show after he joked about reactions to Charlie Kirk’s assassination[/caption]
At the beginning of Monday night’s show, Kimmel said, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.
“In between the finger-pointing, the White House flew the flag at half-staff, which got some criticism, but on a human level, you can see how hard the president was taking this.”
The show then cut to a clip of a reporter asking Trump how he was “holding up” since the death of Kirk.
“I think very good,” said Trump before abruptly pointing to trucks and saying they are starting construction on the new White House ballroom.
The show then cut back to Kimmel, who said, “He’s at the fourth stage of grief: construction,” sparking laughter from the audience.
“This is not how an adult grieved the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish. OK?”
Kimmel said this wasn’t the first time that Trump has dodged questions about Kirk before the show cut to an interview the president had with Fox & Friends.
Trump told the hosts that he was chatting with architects about the White House project when he learned about the shooting before the show cut back to Kimmel.
“And then we installed the most beautiful chandelier,” said Kimmel in a mocking Trump impression.
KIMMEL ‘FURIOUS’
Kimmel has reportedly been left “absolutely f*****g livid” by his show’s sudden cancellation, according to sources who spoke with the Daily Mail.
The insiders claimed the late-night veteran was told about his suspension just hours before he was set to start filming.
“I’ve never seen Jimmy this angry,” one source said.
Kimmel is holding a critical meeting with executives and is ready to “break his relationship with them forever,” as he’s plotting a guest appearance on CBS host Stephen Colbert’s doomed show, the insiders claim.
“Jimmy is p****d over the decision to suspend him and the show, and he isn’t going to take this lightly, as he is actively looking for ways to get out of this contract.
“This is the last straw, and Jimmy is now looking for every break his relationship with ABC forever.”
Kimmel’s fate was put on the chopping block after media company Nexstar urged its TV stations affiliated with ABC to halt airing Kimmel’s show “for the foreseeable future.”
“Nexstar strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets,” the company wrote in a statement.
Andrew Alford, the president of Nextar’s broadcasting division, described the comments as “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse.”
He said that giving Kimmel a platform is “simply not in the public interest at the current time, and we have made the difficult decision to preempt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue.”
Kimmel has hosted the late-night program on ABC since 2003.
