Jimmy Kimmel faces fire calls for Charlie Kirk comment: What did ABC talk show host say?
ABC’s late-night host, Jimmy Kimmel, is facing flak on social media for his comments on the Charlie Kirk assassination
ABC’s late-night host, Jimmy Kimmel, is facing flak on social media for his comments on the Charlie Kirk assassination. The conservative activist, Trump ally and founder of Turning Point USA was fatally shot by 22-year-old Tyler Robinson at a Utah university event last week. The suspect has been charged with aggravated murder, with prosecutors seeking the death penalty.
Kimmel, in a recent episode of his late-night show, suggested that the man accused of killing Kirk was aligned with the ‘MAGA gang’. He did not elaborate further. Now, social media users are slamming the 57-year-old, even asking ABC to fire him.
"ABC faces calls to FIRE Jimmy Kimmel or have their broadcast license revoked if Kimmel refuses to issue a full retraction of his lies that Charlie Kirk shooter Tyler Robinson is “anyone other than one of them [MAGA],” one person wrote on X, platform formerly known as Twitter.
“Jimmy Kimmel went on air and told the ABC audience that Charlie Kirk’s assassin was a MAGA conservative, effectively blaming Charlie Kirk for his own assassination,” commentator Benny Johnson, who has nearly 4 million followers on X, said.
“Then he accused the right of covering it up to “score political points.” All of these statements are false and malicious lies told at the expense of one of the most horrific acts of left-wing political violence in American history,” Johnson added.
What did Jimmy Kimmer exactly say?
During the Monday episode, Kimmel said: “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."
The comments clashed with public statements from law enforcement. FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino told Fox News that the shooting was ‘fairly obvious[ly] an ideologically motivated attack’, pointing to suspect Tyler Robinson’s ‘leftist ideology’.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox also confirmed that Robinson, 22, had become increasingly radicalized.
On Tuesday, police released new details about Robinson, including text messages sent to his roommate and romantic partner. In one message, Robinson wrote: “I had enough of his [Kirk] hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out. If I am able to grab my rifle unseen, I will have left no evidence. Going to attempt to retrieve it again, hopefully they have moved on.”
Kimmer also went after Trump, accusing the president of exploiting the tragedy for political gain.
“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,” Kimmel said.
The late-night host contrasted Trump’s words with his own Instagram statement issued after Kirk’s death last week. “Instead of the angry finger-pointing, can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human? On behalf of my family, we send love to the Kirks and to all the children, parents, and innocents who fall victim to senseless gun violence.”
Neither ABC nor Kimmel has reacted to the criticism yet.
