ABC announced Wednesday that “‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ will be pre-empted indefinitely” following the talk show host’s comments about MAGA and Charlie Kirk’s killer on a Monday broadcast. This makes Kimmel the second late night host to find their show in jeopardy during the second Trump administration in the wake of the cancellation of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”
Kimmel drew the ire of FCC Chairman Brendan Carr for these comments, threatening ABC and parent company Disney to handle the situation – lest the government “take action.” Nexstar Media Group, which has more than 200 owned or partner stations in 116 U.S. markets reaching 220 million people, first said it would preempt “Kimmel” broadcasts before the statement came from ABC itself.
But what exactly did Jimmy Kimmel say about Charlie Kirk that drew such a reaction? While some reporting characterized Kimmel’s statement as labeling Tyler Robinson as a member of “the MAGA gang,” another way to interpret it is that the political right is distancing itself from the alleged shooter with a snap judgment, as Kimmel’s monologue aired before many details of Robinson’s views emerged in purported text messages and statements from his family.
“We 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,” Kimmel said on Monday. You can watch clip, and the full monologue, for yourself below.
It is currently unclear what will be the ultimate fate of “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” Though the show was pulled indefinitely by ABC, it has not yet been officially canceled.
Since the killing of Charlie Kirk last Wednesday, rumors have swirled about the (particularly political) identity of the shooter, with politicians, media personalities and social media users attempting to establish a potential motive. Before the identity of the shooter was eventually revealed, President Donald Trump and other members of the MAGA movement preemptively blamed “the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today” on the rhetoric of the “Radical Left.”
“It’s long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree, day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible,” Trump said the day of Kirk’s assassination. “For years, those on the Radical Left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”
Trump was far from the only one to make such an insinuation. Nancy Mace shared a post on X that reads “The Left owns what happened yesterday,” sharing a video where she says “Democrats own this 100%.” Donald Trump Jr. said violence “is not going both ways. It is going one way. It’s coming from those aligned with the Democrat party.”
Kimmel’s comments directly after the assassination, however, were of a different temperature.
“Welcome, thank you for joining us here in Los Angeles, the second largest city in our 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 to open Thursday’s show. “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. 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 would at least make an attempt to bring us together. But he didn’t. President Obama did. President Biden did. Presidents Bush and Clinton did. President Trump did not. Instead, he blamed Democrats for their rhetoric.”
Several notable members of the Democratic Party, such as Kamala Harris, Barrack Obama and New York mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani condemned the use of political violence against Kirk and in America.
“We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy,” Obama said on X the day of the shooting. “Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.”
Details are still unknown about the full identity of Robinson following his arrest. While some have pointed to his MAGA parents as a hint of his own politics, Utah state attorney Jeff Gray said Robinson’s mother noticed a shift in his own political stance in recent years.
“Robinson’s mother explained that over the last year or so, Robinson had become more political and had started to lean more to the left, becoming more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented,” Gray said. “She stated that Robinson began to date his roommate, a biological male who was transitioning genders. This resulted in several discussions with family members, but especially between Robinson and his father, who have very different political views. In one conversation before the shooting, Robinson mentioned that Charlie Kirk would be holding an event at UVU, which Robinson said was a stupid venue for the event. Robinson accused Kirk of spreading hate.”
Robinson was charged with seven counts on Tuesday, including aggravated murder.
