Megyn Kelly has criticized President Trump for calling on ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel over a controversial joke he made about the first lady, days after Kelly herself slammed Kimmel.
Kimmel drew widespread backlash from Trump’s supporters after joking that Melania had the “glow of an expectant widow” days before a gunman stormed the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25.
“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,” Trump said of Kimmel’s joke on his Truth Social platform. “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC,” he concluded.
Kimmel later defended his divisive joke during Monday night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, describing it as a light roast about the couple’s age difference and “not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination.”
On The Megyn Kelly Show Thursday, Kelly, surprisingly, called Trump’s attack on Kimmel “very inappropriate.”
“The president of the United States should not be calling for any private company to fire any employee, especially over free speech,” the former Fox News host added.
Just days earlier, Kelly had lambasted Kimmel over the joke, saying he never misses “a moment to be crass.”
“For this guy to get up there and say she’s ‘got the glow of an expectant widow,’ like how insensitive can you be?” she asked during Monday’s episode of her show.
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“Honestly, Donald Trump, he’s got children, he’s got grandchildren. He does have a wife, and he has millions of people who love him. And the ‘glow of an expectant widow.’ How sick are you? Truly the left and the de-sensitivity that they’re trying to create in people to the thought of political violence is truly pernicious. It’s a force for evil in this country, and he doubles and triples and quadruples down on it every other week.”
“What are you going to do about it, ABC?” she concluded.
In April 2024, Kelly revealed that she voted for Trump in the 2020 presidential election and would vote for him again in 2024 despite the friction their relationship has faced in the past.
However, she notably turned on Trump earlier this year over his decision to go to war with Iran.
Kelly isn’t the only unlikely ally Kimmel has found after Trump called for his firing — Republican Senator Ted Cruz said, “It is not the government’s job to censor speech, and I do not believe the FCC should operate as the speech police.”
On Tuesday, the FCC demanded an early review of eight ABC TV licenses held by parent company Disney to determine if the broadcaster violated its “prohibition on unlawful discrimination.”
Trump-appointed FCC chairman Brendan Carr denied Thursday that the events were linked and claimed the decision was due to an existing DEI investigation. “This was based on DEI conduct, not speech,” said Carr. “The FCC has rules on the books.”
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