In the aftermath of the White House correspondents’ dinner shooting, Melania Trump accused Jimmy Kimmel of “hateful and violent rhetoric” and said it was “time for ABC to take a stand” against the comedian who has long been critical of Donald Trump and his policies.
The first lady appeared to be referring to a monologue by a Kimmel broadcast on Thursday, well before the Saturday attack on the White House correspondents’ dinner, in which he referred to Melania Trump as an “expectant widow” in remarks otherwise largely about the Trumps’ connections to Jeffrey Epstein.
Kimmel’s comment came during a skit parodying he White House correspondent’s dinner, in which the ABC host pretended to be the event’s MC.
“Our first lady Melania is here,” he said. “So beautiful, Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
Melania Trump’s criticism follows an episode last September where ABC suspended Kimmel after Brendan Carr, the pro-Trump chair of the Federal Communications Commission, threatened the network for jokes the comedian made about the president. The incident sparked an uproar amid allegations that Carr was attacking the constitutional right to free speech, and ABC later brought Kimmel back on air.