Disney’s late-night funnyman Jimmy Kimmel said he didn’t see what the “problem” was with his comments about slain conservative icon and free speech martyr Charlie Kirk, and blamed “right-wing media networks” for the backlash he received, claiming conservative reporters “intentionally” and “maliciously mischaracterized” his controversial remarks.
“I didn’t think there was a big problem, You know? I just saw it as distortion on the part of some of the right-wing media networks, and I aimed to correct it,” Kimmel said of his comments about Kirk’s assassination during a Wednesday interview with Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw for Bloomberg Screentime.
“Sometimes you think, ‘Oh, this is not a problem,’ and then it turns into a big problem, and then sometimes it goes the other way, where you think, ‘Uh oh, this is going to be a problem,’ and then nobody really notices.”
Shaw then asked Kimmel “at what point did you realize this was a problem?” to which ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! host replied, “I think when they pulled the show off the air,” eliciting laughter among audience members.
“You felt like your initial comments had been mischaracterized?” Shaw asked, to which Kimmel answered, “I didn’t feel like it, it was. It was intentionally, and, I think, maliciously mischaracterized, yes.”
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Notably, less than one week after the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, Kimmel took to his show to tell millions of grieving Americans that one of them had likely killed the man for whom they were mourning.
The late-night host had falsely suggested on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that the assassin may have been part of the “MAGA gang,” and mocked President Donald Trump’s response, which included ordering American flags flown at half-staff.
ABC, Disney, and affiliates responded by briefly pulling Jimmy Kimmel Live! from all of their stations, with broadcast affiliate Nexstar citing Kimmel’s “offensive and insensitive” comments “at a critical time in our national political discourse,” and stressing the company’s desire to “move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue.”
After returning to the air, Kimmel was slammed for his non-apology monologue addressing the matter, and was accused of spinning the narrative “in typical leftist fashion” to paint himself as a victim.
Kirk’s murder rattled the world, sparking an outpouring of grief for the Turning Point USA founder, who had become a martyr for free speech on September 10, after he was assassinated while trying to have an open and respectful dialogue with a student at Utah Valley University.
Reactions from leftists, meanwhile, sent a second shockwave throughout the globe, as people were able to witness firsthand the shocking depravity and degradation of society via what also served as a major mask-off and watershed moment: the left celebrating and justifying the assassination of a free speech martyr — simply because his views had differed from their own.
Kimmel’s controversial remarks amid ghoulish left-wing celebrations didn’t help matters, as he channeled the cognitive dissidence of other left-wing media personalities, who refused to even consider the notion that Kirk had likely been assassinated by someone who shares their political views.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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