White House communications director Steven Cheung slammed Jimmy Kimmel. This was after the late-night host defended his joke about First Lady Melania Trump. Cheung called Kimmel out for remarking about assassinating the president. He also condemned Kimmel for failing to show basic decency by apologizing and instead defending his actions. These comments come after Kimmel joked that Melania had “a glow like an expectant widow” during a sketch about a fictionalized WHCD.
White House calls out Jimmy Kimmel after he defends ‘widow’ joke
Steven Cheung took to X (formerly Twitter) to criticize Jimmy Kimmel for not apologizing for his joke about Melania. He said, “Jimmy Kimmel is a sh*t human being.” He then listed two points why he thinks so. “#1. Making a disgusting joke about assassinating the President #2. Doubling down on that joke instead of doing the decent thing by apologizing,” he elaborated. Cheung demanded that ABC fire the host immediately and shun him for life.
Before the call-out, Kimmel addressed the “expectant widow” joke about Melania Trump, clarifying that it was about their age difference and in no way suggested the idea of the president’s assassination. He explained, “It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am. It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination, and they know that I’ve been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence in particular.”
Moreover, in his monologue, Jimmy Kimmel stressed the importance of freedom of speech while expressing sympathy for the president and Melania Trump following the WHCD shooting. Before this, he also agreed that hateful and violent rhetoric shouldn’t be tolerated, but maintained that this outlook should apply to the president as well. Condemning the violent act, Kimmel added, “Just ’cuz no one got killed doesn’t mean it wasn’t traumatic and scary. And we should come together and be best.”
Originally reported by Shazmeen Navrange for Mandatory.
