{"id":47815,"date":"2025-09-24T02:39:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T07:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=47815"},"modified":"2025-09-24T03:41:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T08:41:53","slug":"kimmel-takes-on-carr-trump-in-tearful-return-to-late-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=47815","title":{"rendered":"Kimmel takes on Carr, Trump in tearful return to late night"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel\u2002<\/u><\/a>returned to his late night perch on Tuesday, giving an emotional response to the backlash his comments last week on the killing of Charlie Kirk\u2002<\/u><\/a>sparked and speaking out against what he said was an attempt to silence him by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe most of all I want to thank the people who don\u2019t support what I have to say but support my right to speak those beliefs anyway,\u201d Kimmel said as he returned to the network after a weeklong suspension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The host called out by name several prominent conservative pundits and Republican lawmakers who criticized ABC\u2019s decision to take Kimmel off the air, a move that came after Trump\u2019s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair, Brendan Car, blasted the host over his comments and suggested the host be punished by the network or its affiliates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kimmel last Monday accused conservatives of trying to score \u201cpolitical points\u201d over Kirk\u2019s death and joked that Trump was mourning his death \u201clike a four year old mourns a goldfish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do want to make something clear because it\u2019s important to me as a human: And that is you understand it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,\u201d Kimmel said as his voice cracked. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything funny about it \u2026 nor was it my intention to blame any specific group [for Kirk\u2019s killing],\u201d he said, later calling the suspect in Kirk\u2019s assassination \u201cobviously a deeply disturbed individual.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd I understand that to some that seemed either ill-time or unclear or both \u2026 and I get why you\u2019re upset,\u201d the comedian continued, noting that he and his family also get threats from critics for speaking his mind on politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comedian then turned his focus on the Trump administration, arguing that his suspension highlighted the importance of \u201cliving in a country that allows us to have a show like this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kimmel called the effort by Trump\u2019s FCC to get his show taken off the air \u201cun-American\u201d and criticized Carr directly, saying his threats to scrutinize ABC over Kimmel\u2019s show were \u201cunintelligent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBrendan Carr\u2002<\/u><\/a>is the most embarrassing Carr Republicans have embraced since this one,\u201d Kimmel said as he displayed a picture of a cybertruck with the word TRUMP written on it. \u201cAnd that\u2019s saying something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comedian\u2019s show Tuesday was not shown on dozens of ABC stations across the country after a pair of top local news providers, Nexstar, which owns The Hill, and Sinclair, said they would continue to pre-empt his show over his comments on Kirk last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comedian seemingly relished the attention his show got on Tuesday, playing for his audience a clip of Trump telling reporters Kimmel was pulled off the air because he had \u201cno talent and no ratings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, I do tonight,\u201d Kimmel quipped to uproarious applause. \u201cHe tried his best to cancel me and instead he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly. He might have to release the Epstein files to distract us from this now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comedian said he was angry at Disney, ABC\u2019s parent company, for pulling him off the air, but also said they could have easily stuck with that decision, thanking them for ultimately \u201cdefending my right to poke fun at our leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he closed his monologue, Kimmel referenced a speech given by Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk\u2019s widow, at the slain activist\u2019s memorial service Sunday, during which she said she forgave the person charged with killing her husband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe forgave him, that is an example we should follow,\u201d he said, choking up once more, saying Erika Kirk\u2019s speech \u201ctouched me deeply.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd if there\u2019s anything from this tragedy that we can take forward,\u201d Kimmel said. \u201cI hope it can be that, not this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel\u2002returned to his late night perch on Tuesday, giving an emotional response to the backlash his comments last week on the killing of Charlie Kirk\u2002sparked and speaking out against what he said was an attempt to silence him by the Trump administration. \u201cMaybe most of all I want to thank the people who don\u2019t support […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":47816,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[28592,2659,34751,1230],"class_list":["post-47815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-carr","tag-kimmel","tag-late-night-2","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47817,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47815\/revisions\/47817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}