Jimmy Kimmel was abruptly pulled from the airwaves after criticizing the MAGA movement’s response to a high-profile killing, prompting Barack Obama to publicly denounce what he described as political interference in media by the Trump administration.
The late-night host’s show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, was shelved indefinitely by Disney, according to an ABC spokesperson, just hours after Kimmel suggested on-air that Tyler Robinson—the man accused of killing a man named Kirk—might have been a pro-Trump Republican. The fallout from Kimmel’s monologue quickly escalated into a broader political flashpoint when Obama took to social media Thursday to call out what he sees as a dangerous trend of government coercion targeting journalists and entertainers.
Kimmel, a longtime critic of Donald Trump, made the controversial remarks during his Monday night monologue, accusing the MAGA movement of exploiting Kirk’s death for political gain. The identity and motives of Robinson, the suspect in the killing, remain under investigation.