US first lady Melania Trump has lashed out at Jimmy Kimmel, telling US broadcaster ABC to “take a stand” after the late-night talk show host commented that she had the glow of an “expecting widow” in a monologue delivered before a shooting in Washington.
“Enough is enough. It’s time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC leadership enable Kimmel’s egregious behavior at the expense of our community,” the first lady said in a post on X on Monday US time (Tuesday AEST).
“His monologue about my family is not comedy,” he added, describing it as “hateful and violent rhetoric.”
US President Donald Trump and the first lady were hastily kicked out of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night (US time) following a shooting in the lobby of the Washington Hilton.
Kimmel, in a dinner parody which aired last week before the actual event, read: “Mrs Trump, you have a glow like a pregnant widow.”
Kimmel also implied that convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein had introduced Trump and his wife, a claim the first lady denied in a rare speech earlier this month.
The jokes were considered to be in poor taste in light of the attempted murder at dinner two nights later. Disney and ABC had no immediate comment.
At a press conference on Monday US time (Tuesday AEST), White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Kimmel had “disgustingly” called the first lady an “expectant widow”.
“Who in their right mind says a wife would be excited about the possible murder of her beloved husband? And having experienced what I did with the first lady on Saturday night, I can tell you she was anything but,” he said.
Leavitt was sitting at a long table at dinner alongside the Trumps when chaos erupted. He described the incident as the “third major assassination attempt” against the president in two years.
A suspect identified as Cole Allen walked through a checkpoint and fired at Secret Service agents, wounding one, before being subdued and arrested.
The first lady later appeared alongside her husband as he briefed reporters at the White House on Saturday night (US time). She described the incident as “a pretty traumatic experience” for her.
Asked during an interview with CBS 60 minutes On Sunday, the president said whether his wife had been afraid: “I don’t want to say, and people don’t like to say they were afraid, but certainly, I mean, who wouldn’t be when you have a situation like that?”
In September, the head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) pressured broadcasters to take Kimmel off the air. ABC briefly suspended Kimmel’s show that month over comments he made about the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Hours before the suspension, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr warned that local stations that broadcast Kimmel could face fines or loss of licenses and said “it’s time for them to step up.” His comments drew pushback from the entertainment industry and politicians on both sides of the aisle, including Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who likened his threats to those of an organized crime boss.
In September, Sinclair and Nexstar Media Group briefly took Kimmel’s show off the air on his 70th
ABC affiliate stations covering nearly a quarter of American households. Carr wants to make it easier for local stations to get ahead of national programming.
In November, Trump criticized an ABC News correspondent for asking Saudi Arabia’s crown prince about the 2018 murder of a man. Washington Post columnist and suggested that the commission should act to revoke the broadcast licenses of Disney-owned ABC stations.
with Reuters, Bloomberg
Get a note directly from our foreigner correspondents about what’s making headlines around the world. Subscribe to our weekly What in the World newsletter.
Sarah McPhee is the evening homepage editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect by email.
