President Trump on Thursday claimed late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel had his show taken off the air “because he had bad ratings,” shrugging off a question about whether it was an attack on free speech.
A reporter with ITV in the United Kingdom asked Trump during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer if free speech was “more under attack in Britain, or in America,” citing ABC’s decision to indefinitely pull Kimmel’s show off-air.
“Well, Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else, and he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk,” Trump said.
“And Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person. He had very bad ratings, and they should have fired him a long time ago,” Trump added. “So, you know, you could call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent.”
ABC announced Wednesday it was taking Kimmel’s late night show off-air “indefinitely.” The announcement came amid criticism from conservatives about the late night host’s commentary following the killing of Kirk, the co-founder of Turning Point USA.
Brendan Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), had earlier Wednesday suggested his agency could take action against ABC over Kimmel’s remarks, in which the late night host said Trump’s supporters were “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.”
Prior to ABC’s announcement, Nexstar Media Group said its affiliate stations across the country would preempt “Jimmy Kimmel Live” over his comments. Nexstar recently announced plans to acquire rival company Tegna as part of a massive deal that will require FCC approval.
Nexstar, which owns The Hill, is the largest provider of local news in the country, with affiliate stations in dozens of markets across the United States. It also owns NewsNation and the CW.
Trump has attacked Kimmel and other late night hosts for years. The president previously celebrated a decision by CBS to cancel “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and had suggested Kimmel, as well as the late night hosts at NBC, should also be canceled.
“Trump and his allies seem to want to shut down speech that they don’t like to hear,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday night on CNN. “That is not what democracies do. That is what autocracies do.”
