Comedian Kathy Griffin came to the defense of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel this week, drawing on her own turbulent experience with presidential scrutiny after Mr. Kimmel’s joke about first lady Melania Trump ignited a firestorm that has since drawn in federal regulators.
Ms. Griffin addressed the controversy Tuesday on her Talk Your Head Off podcast, expressing solidarity with Mr. Kimmel while lamenting that no one had mounted a similar defense when her career collapsed in 2017 following a photograph in which she posed with a prop resembling a bloodied, severed head of President Trump.
“I’m just gonna be honest: It still hurts. It was nine years ago for me … It still hurts that nobody did stuff like this for me where they would dedicate a whole episode to just standing up for the First Amendment,” Ms. Griffin said, according to Breitbart. “Because my First Amendment rights were truly violated because I had the actual Department of Justice coming after me, not a private company, so that’s what’s happening to Jimmy right now.”
Ms. Griffin also noted that Mr. Kimmel made his now-controversial quip two days before a gunman attempted to crash the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25. “The joke was made prior to the alleged assassination attempt,” she said, per The Wrap. “That is the most important thing to remember, so of course the MAGA people are losing their minds, and I guess they think Jimmy Kimmel manifested this or something, which is just funny that they can’t even do a timeline.”
The joke at issue aired April 23 on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” during a mock White House Correspondents’ Dinner segment in which Mr. Kimmel quipped that Mrs. Trump had “a glow like an expectant widow” — a reference to the 24-year age gap between her and the 79-year-old president. The remark resurfaced widely after Cole Tomas Allen, a California man, was charged with attempting to assassinate the president during the real correspondents’ dinner event days later.
Mr. Trump and the first lady both called publicly for Mr. Kimmel’s termination. “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social, characterizing the host’s remark as a “despicable call to violence.”
Mr. Kimmel pushed back Monday on his program, calling the “expectant widow” line “a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am. It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination. And they know that.”
The controversy has since escalated beyond the network. The Federal Communications Commission ordered Disney’s eight ABC-owned stations to file for early broadcast license renewals by May 28, citing an ongoing investigation into the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices. ABC faces a lengthy review process with multiple opportunities to respond, and legal experts noted that the standard for actually denying a license renewal is extremely difficult to meet.
Mr. Kimmel has drawn support from a range of quarters. According to HuffPost, Rep. James Comer (Kentucky Republican), actor George Clooney, Jane Fonda’s Committee for the First Amendment and Adam Carolla — Mr. Kimmel’s former co-host on “The Man Show” — have all come to his defense. “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert was photographed at a New York Knicks playoff game Tuesday wearing a “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” beanie in a visible show of solidarity.
ABC has not publicly responded to the White House’s calls for Mr. Kimmel’s dismissal.
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