Bill O’Reilly hit back at Jimmy Kimmel’s defense of his controversial “expectant widow” joke about Melania Trump, suggesting the late night host was “not smart enough” to understand the gravity of the dig.
The conservative commentator weighed in on the drama during Tuesday’s episode of “No Spin News,” where he took Kimmel to task for the joke, as well as his defense of the quip, which the comedian called a “light roast.”
“Now, you may remember that in September of last year, Jimmy Kimmel said that MAGA people were partially responsible for the assassination of Charlie Kirk. It was an outrageous comment, a stupid comment, a foolish comment. I gave Kimmel some slack and I did so because everybody makes mistakes,” O’Reilly started off. “I thought that was a reasonable approach. I was wrong.”
He continued: “Kimmel does not deserve the platform. He is a hater. He peddles hate.”
O’Reilly then slammed Kimmel as an “ardent leftist,” later questioning the entertainer’s intelligence for the joke he made at the first lady’s expense.
“That’s pretty damning to say that when the president has already [seen] assassination [attempts] of him twice,” O’Reilly said after playing footage of Kimmel suggesting that Melania had the “glow like an expectant widow” days before a shooter disrupted the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
“Again, Kimmel is not smart enough in my opinion to understand what he’s saying. He’s not smart enough,” O’Reilly sounded off. “Simply doesn’t know.”
He then played footage of Kimmel’s defense of the joke, in which he said that he too was against “hateful and violent rhetoric.” O’Reilly didn’t necessarily buy this line from Kimmel, proceeding to play the number of times the late night host has called out the Trump family.
And it wasn’t just Kimmel that O’Reilly took umbrage with, as he also slammed “very liberal corporation” Disney. Per O’Reilly, the entertainment conglomerate was overseeing a “hatefest” of Trump, citing “The View” as another example.
“They could fix ‘The View.’ That’s not hard. Let’s bring in a couple of moderate women to sit on a panel,” he added. “It’s not as bad as Kimmel, but it’s close. We hate Trump every day, every way.”
As O’Reilly went on, he claimed that Disney was “the big villain here” for allowing this anti-Trump rhetoric. Watch his comments below.
O’Reilly’s criticism came hours after the Federal Communications Commission asked Disney’s eight local ABC broadcast stations to apply for an early renewal for broadcast licenses, a rare move that increases government pressure on the company.
“The FCC determines that calling in Disney’s ABC licenses for early renewal, at this time, under the Communications Act’s public interest standard is essential within the meaning of agency regulations,” David J. Brown, the chief of the FCC’s video division, wrote to Disney, ABC and the stations in a letter on Tuesday. “Therefore, Disney’s ABC is hereby directed to file license renewals for all of their licensed TV stations within 30 days–in other words, by May 28, 2026.”
A Disney spokesperson said the company has received the letter and it believes “ABC and its stations have a long record of operating in full compliance with FCC rules and serving their local communities with trusted news, emergency information, and public‑interest programming.”
The FCC’s demand followed Donald and Melania Trump’s outcry over the “expectant widow” joke, with both the president and first lady calling for Kimmel’s termination.
