Comedian and host Jimmy Kimmel assured that his recent joke about U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania was “a joke” and not “a call for assassination” after the president called for his firing.
“It was a very gentle joke about the fact that he is almost 80 years old and she is younger than me. It was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a call for murder. And they know that,” Kimmel said on Monday’s episode of his ‘Jimmy Kimmel Show,’ which airs on ABC.
Last week, Kimmel did a skit about the annual dinner for reporters covering the White House, in which he pretended to be the comedian in charge of entertaining the guests.
“Our first lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,” is among the comments she made in her parody of the dinner, which was repudiated by both the first lady and the president. Expectant, in English, is used with the double meaning of expecting something and being pregnant.
In between jokes, Kimmel alluded to the first lady with an ironic comparison and made jokes about the president in relation to an AI-generated image he had shared on social media and later deleted after receiving criticism.
On the day of the dinner, which was held on Saturday, Melania, Trump and his cabinet had to be evacuated after a gunman managed to get past security at the hotel where the event was being held and began firing toward the door behind which the event was taking place.
In her message, Melania Trump stated that the content of the program “is not comedy” and accused the comedian of contributing to “deepening the political divide in America.”
He also argued that figures like Kimmel “should not have access to American homes every night to spread messages of hate.”
“His monologue about my family is not comedy; his words are corrosive and delve into the political sickness that reigns in America,” Melania Trump said in X.
In addition, Melania considered Kimmel’s joke a “rhetoric of hate and violence” that “aims to divide” America, and noted that ABC should “take action” for it.
“How many more times will ABC management allow Kimmel’s egregious behavior at the expense of our community?” he insisted.
Trump subsequently called for his firing and claimed that his joke was “a despicable call to violence.”
“I have been outspoken against gun violence for many years, but I understand that the first lady went through a stressful experience this weekend. Probably every weekend is stressful in that house,” Kimmel said last night.
The comedian also assured that he agrees “that we must reject the rhetoric of hate and violence”: “I think a good starting point would be to talk about it with your husband,” he stressed, earning applause from the audience.
Last year, ABC suspended Kimmel’s program after comments he made about Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist murdered on September 10, reported Agencia EFE.
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