What Jimmy Kimmel said about Charlie Kirk's killing
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Jimmy Kimmel in New York City in May. Photo: David Russell/Disney via Getty Images
Jimmy Kimmel's comments on the killing of Charlie Kirk saw his show pulled by ABC on Wednesday.
The big picture: "'Jimmy Kimmel Live' will be pre-empted indefinitely," an ABC spokesperson said in a statement shared with outlets including Axios. Here's what Kimmel said on his show and Instagram about Kirk's shooting in Utah last week.
What he's saying: Kimmel said in his opening monologue on Monday that the U.S. had "hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it, but in between the finger-pointing, there was grieving."
- He noted the White House "flew the flags at half-staff, which got some criticism, but on a human level, you can see how hard the president is taking this."
- Kimmel added: "Yes, he's at the fourth stage of grief: construction. Demolition, construction. This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend; this is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish?"
Zoom in: "Thank you for joining us here in Los Angeles, the second largest city in a bitterly divided nation where, like the rest of the country, we're still trying to wrap our heads around the senseless murder of the popular podcaster and conservative activist Charlie Kirk yesterday, whose death has amplified our anger, our differences," Kimmel said on his show last week.
- "I've seen a lot of extraordinarily vile responses to this from both sides of the political spectrum. Some people are cheering this, which is something I won't ever understand," he said in the opening monologue.
- "We had another school shooting yesterday in Colorado, the 100th one of the year. And with all these terrible things happening, you would think that our president will at least make an attempt to bring us together. But he didn't," Kimmel continued.
- "President Obama did. President Biden did. Presidents Bush and Clinton did. President Trump did not. Instead, he blamed Democrats for their rhetoric," he said, shifting his monologue to attack Trump for his past behavior on matters such as the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
More from Axios:
- ABC pulls Jimmy Kimmel after Charlie Kirk comments
- Kimmel joins those facing professional repercussions over Kirk comments
- White House, Trump cheer ABC over Kimmel suspension: "Jimmy is a sick freak!"
Editor's note: This article has been updated with more details from Jimmy Kimmel's comments.
