Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Jimmy Kimmel Reveals He Told His Son Trump Got Him Suspended From Show

Screenshot/YouTube/ We Can Do Hard Things

Jimmy Kimmel disclosed on “We Can Do Hard Things” Thursday that he told his son without evidence that President Donald Trump was to blame for his suspension from “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

ABC temporarily suspended Kimmel on Sept. 17 after Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcasting announced they would not air his show following his  Sept. 15 remarks on the assassination of Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder Charlie Kirk, in which he implied the alleged assassin was a member of MAGA. Kimmel and his wife, Molly McNearney, who works on the show as an executive producer and co-head writer, recounted on the podcast how their son asked them if Trump caused the suspension.

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“Our son asked if the president had done this,” McNearney said. “And we looked at each other and we didn’t quite know how to answer that question.”

Kimmel said he believed he answered affirmatively to his son’s query, appearing to jog his wife’s memory.

“We did. We actually both said yes at the exact same time,” she said. “We said yes. He did.”

Critics accused the Trump administration of involvement in Kimmel’s suspension since Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr publicly threatened ABC over the Kirk monologue before the suspension was announced.

However, there has been no evidence to date to show Trump caused Kimmel’s suspension.

Disney announced on Sept. 22 that Kimmel’s suspended program would return to the air on Sept. 23. It took responsibility for the suspension in its announcement and did not even mention Trump.

“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” Disney’s statement read. “It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”

Kimmel did not issue an apology for his monologue during his return episode.