“After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like,” said former President Barack Obama in a Thursday X post.
He was referring to the recent suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on ABC News following the host’s comments about Tyler Robinson, the alleged murderer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last week. Kimmel criticized those on the right and intimated that Robinson was also right-wing, while some reports have indicated that alleged killer had at least some left-wing beliefs.
“With all due respect to former President Obama, he has no idea what he’s talking about,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News’ Kayleigh McEnany this Saturday. “The decision to fire Jimmy Kimmel and to cancel his show came from executives at ABC.”
However, officials in President Donald Trump’s administration have aimed some criticism at the left in the wake of Kirk’s shooting.
“Something happened to him over a fairly short period of time. It looks like he was radicalized over the internet, and it’s radicalized on the left. He’s a left,” Trump himself said of Robinson, according to ABC News.
“People on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence,” said Vice President JD Vance while hosting an episode of Kirk’s podcast this week. “This isn’t a both sides problem.”
He was referencing a recent YouGov poll on political violence that found more liberals believed it was acceptable to be happy about the death of political rivals. Outlets like The Economist and CNN have noted that other research doesn’t back up claims that the left is more violent than the right and that “opinion polls probably overestimate public support from both sides.”
Vance called for people to report people who celebrated Kirk’s death, including coworkers as well. Attorney General Pam Bondi also made an announcement about cracking down on hate speech after the Kirk shooting that had even conservative political commenters Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly reeling over the importance of free speech.
Kelly called Bondi’s comments “absolutely ridiculous.”
Nexstar explicitly cited Kimmel’s Kirk comments as the reason for the show being suspended, but rumors about censorship related to the Trump administration had already been swirling this year. When Paramount announced it would end “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and cited financial reasons, many believed it had more to do with Colbert’s criticism of Trump ahead of the company’s merger with Skydance, owned by the son of a powerful GOP donor.
In her “Saturday in America” interview, Leavitt said that ABC’s move to suspend Kimmel was “not at the behest of the White House,” said Fox News. She also said that she was with the president in the U.K. when the news about Kimmel broke.
“It was a decision that was made by ABC because Jimmy Kimmel chose to knowingly lie to his audience on his program about the death of a highly respected man when our country is in a state of mourning. That was a decision that he made, and he is now facing a consequence for that decision and for that lie,” Leavitt said.
Trump has recently sued media companies, including CBS and the New York Times. Both Trump and Vance also commented on Kimmel’s suspension via social media.
“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!” said Trump on Truth Social.
“Jimmy Kimmel wasn’t funny, his ratings were in the toilet, and his advertisers were revolting. Also the bellyaching from the left over ‘free speech’ after the Biden years fools precisely no one,” said Vance on X.
Obama provided more on the current state of division in this U.S. this weekend.
“Part of the role of the presidency is to constantly remind us of the ties that bind us together,” he said in a video posted to X on Saturday in which he complimented other former President George W. Bush, the late Sen. John McCain and Mitt Romney, all Republicans. “We live in a big, complicated, raucous, diverse nation. I’ve said before, I believe, it is what makes us exceptional. There’s never been an experiment like this.”