JD Vance says that Jimmy Kimmel should apologize to Erika Kirk, the widow of assassinated right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk.
The vice-president also said that Kimmel needed to apologise to “right-wing America,” whom Vance thinks were “slandered” by the late-night host.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! was taken off the air by ABC on September 17 after a monologue in which he said Republicans were trying to score “political points” after Kirk’s death.
He added that Trump’s response to the news was not “how an adult grieves the murder of someone he calls a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.”
When his show returned on September 22, Kimmel clarified that it was not his “intention to blame any specific group” or “make light” of the shooting.
A tearful Kimmel also said Erika Kirk’s decision to “forgive” her husband’s killer “touched” him “deeply.”
The first episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! to air after the show was paused achieved its highest ratings in a decade. Over 6.2 million people watched the show on TV while another 26 million watched his monologue on social media.
However, on The Ingraham Angle, the Vice President said that Kimmel’s September 17 monologue was “accusing right-wing America, conservative America, of killing Charlie Kirk.”
“If we’re going to stop this crazy strain of left-wing violence, we have to be honest about what it is, and the honest truth is that Charlie Kirk was not killed by a MAGA American.
“He was not killed by a Republican. He was killed by a left-wing radical.
“Let’s be honest about that fact, so that we can stop it from happening,” he added.
However, a source close to a federal investigation into the assassination of Charlie Kirk told NBC News that there is “no evidence connecting the suspect with any left-wing groups.”
Tyler Robinson, the man accused of killing Kirk, is currently charged with aggravated murder and obstruction of justice.
“Every indication so far is that this was one guy who did one really bad thing because he found Kirk’s ideology personally offensive,” another source told the network.
In the wake of his killing, Trump described the commentator as a “martyr” and even floated the idea of creating a Charlie Kirk national holiday.
At the Turning Point USA founder’s memorial, the president, blaming the rhetoric of the “radical left” for causing Kirk’s death, admitted that he feels “hate” for his opponents and does “not want the best” for his enemies.
Many prominent celebrities and late-night show hosts leapt to Kimmel’s defence, blaming the president for putting pressure on ABC to cancel Jimmy Kimmel Live!
“With an autocrat, you cannot give an inch.”
“If ABC thinks this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naive,” Stephen Colbert said on his show.
CBS canceled Colbert’s own show for “financial” reasons, days after the host said the network had accepted a “big, fat bribe” from a “sitting government official, earlier this year.
“Trump promised to end government censorship and bring back free speech, and he’s doing the opposite, and it has experts worried that we are rapidly devolving into repressive autocracy in the style of Russia or Hungary, much faster than anyone could have predicted,” Seth Meyers added on his NBC show.
