White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has fired back after Barack Obama tried to blame President Donald Trump for Jimmy Kimmel’s getting axed by ABC.
It comes as the fallout from the assassination of conservative activist and commentator Charlie Kirk has continued apace.
Last week, late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel received an indefinite suspension from his ABC television show for his characterization of the accused shooter and of MAGA supporters more broadly.
Former President Obama decided to weigh in on the network’s decision, pointing a finger of blame at the Trump administration.
Obama attempted to imply that Trump’s White House is involved in First Amendment violations.
However, as Fox News reports, Obama drew a swift rebuke from Leavitt.
As Newsweek explains, Obama took to X in the aftermath of Kimmel’s suspension, sharing an article written by David French for the New York Times, which warned of the purported First Amendment dangers it represented.
That post followed additional online commentary from the former president in which he implored media moguls to resist what he described as pressure from the Trump administration to engage in censorship.
Obama wrote, “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.”
He continued, “This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent – and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.”
In response to Obama’s comments, Leavitt fired back swiftly and surely, countering the former president’s implication that the Trump White House forced the issue on Kimmel’s suspension.
The press secretary’s response came during an appearance on Fox News’ Saturday in America, hosted by Kayleigh McEnany
“With all due respect to former President Barack Obama, he has no idea what he’s talking about,” Leavitt declared.
Stating emphatically that Trump had no role in Kimmel’s temporary removal from the airwaves, Leavitt added:
“And how do I know that, Kayleigh?
“Because I was with the president when this news broke in the United Kingdom.”
She added that the commander in chief “had no idea this was happening.”
Leavitt did not stop there, stating:
“It was a decision that was made by ABC because Jimmy Kimmel chose to knowingly like 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.”
Bolstering the assertion that Kimmel’s suspension was a corporate-driven decision and not the coerced government action Obama claimed, was a statement issued by Nexstar Media Group, owner of hundreds of ABC affiliates across the country.
“Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located,” the company declared.
Sinclair, the country’s largest ABC affiliate group, took things a step further by not just declaring its intent to preempt Kimmel’s program but also demanding that the host issue a formal apology to the Kirk family and make a substantial financial contribution to Turning Point USA.
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