President Trump once again lashed out at news outlets this week, repeating his call for ABC News to lose its license. That gave Jimmy Kimmel a chuckle though, as the ABC host reminded Trump of what happened the last time his FCC chair pressured the network to do something.
Trump’s outburst came as he welcomed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the man who US intelligence determined orchestrated the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, to the White House. When ABC News reporter asked the men about that fact — and subsequently asked Trump about the Epstein files — Trump immediately got defensive.
“I think the license should be taken away from ABC, because your news is so fake and it’s so wrong,” he said. “And we have a great commissioner, the chairman, who should look at that.”
“I don’t know. The last time your FCC guy looked at that, didn’t go so great for you,” Kimmel retorted, drawing huge cheers from the audience.
The ABC host was almost certainly referring to his own suspension earlier this year. Kimmel was abruptly taken off the air for several days, after FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened action against the network for Kimmel’s comments about Charlie Kirk’s killer.
The move drew fierce criticism nationwide, protests, and led to mass cancellations of subscriptions to Disney+ and Hulu. After days of hemorrhaging money and subscribers, Kimmel was eventually reinstated, despite gloating by both Trump and Carr about his suspesion.
ABC has been a regular target for Trump; in addition to Kimmel and ABC News, the White House has also threatened ABC talk show “The View” multiple times over.
You can watch Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue in the video above.
