Melania Trump at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. New York Post/AFP.
First Lady Melania Trump issued a rare public statement calling for the firing of ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel. New York Post. Melania and Donald Trump called for the firing after an exceptionally ill timed joke made by Kimmel. Kimmel said “Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.” in a parody of the Whitehouse Correspondent's Dinner before the event happened. Of course, an assassination attempt on President Trump and other members of the White House occurred at the event. Melania Trump accused Kimmel of hiding behind ABC and called for the network to fire him. Kimmel was previously suspended for lying about the Charlie Kirk assassination, falsely claiming that Tyler Robinson was a Republican.
My Comment:
Most media reports are absolutely downplaying the original incident that almost got Jimmy Kimmel fired in the first place. I absolutely think he should have been fired for that and if he gets fired now I would not be upset. His lies were incredibly damaging as there are still people that believe that Tyler Robinson was a Republican and not the LGBT activist he was. Robinson killed Kirk because he was angry that Kirk wasn't fully on board with transgender ideology and he was dating a male to female transgender person.
Kimmel did serious damage with his statement that Robinson was conservative. And the worst part is that news had broken that day, well before Kimmel taped the show, Robinson's real motive. This wasn't a joke, it was a deliberate lie that Kimmel and his team absolutely shouldn't have done.
This current controversy though? It seems a lot less serious. It was a bad joke for sure, you shouldn't be implying that a woman would be happy that her husband died under any circumstances. But if you do it to a woman who was married to a man that had multiple assassination plots against him and one that he was not only injured in but legitimately only survived due to what can only be described as divine intervention, you are going to make everyone mad.
But it was just a joke and I am not really comfortable firing people over jokes, even when they are in extraordinarily bad taste. I will also say that Kimmel made the joke before the event and had no idea what was going to happen with the attempted assassin. If this was all Kimmel did I would not really support him getting fired.
If Kimmel does get fired for this, it would be imperfect justice. I absolutely believe that he has no business surviving the original Charlie Kirk assassination controversy, but this current one is dramatically less serious. He should get fired for being a liar, not for being a crappy comedian that insulted the President and First Lady.
I do feel for Melania Trump here. She has an absolute right to be disgusted by what Kimmel said. It's pretty clear she was traumatized by the attack and it some ways it was worse than Butler for her specifically. Not only was her husband in danger this time, but she was herself, along with a lot of people she knows and cares about. I don't blame her for being upset.
As for Kimmel himself, I don't know if this will end up with him being fired. It really depends on how angry people get about this. He almost got fired the last time, mostly because ABC affiliates revolted and advertisers pulled out. Will that happen again? I am not sure. Like I said, this case isn't as serious as the last controversy and I don't know how sustained the anger will be for a failed assassination attempt that nobody died at.
But I do think that Kimmel could be at risk. Late night TV is a joke now anyways and this is the 2nd incident in 7 months. ABC has to be thinking that the continued controversy with Kimmel isn't really worth it. If there is a groundswell of anger over Kimmel or yet another incident, Kimmel might be gone.
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