Comedian Jimmy Kimmel has come under fire after a recent joke sparked controversy in the wake of the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump.
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The drama was sparked after Cole Thomas Allen was arrested for trying to charge through a security checkpoint at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner. He has since been indicted on charges including attempted assassination of the president.
Frustration quickly began to build around Kimmel, who served a mock roast on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” last Thursday night. Ready for Saturday dinner.
In it, the comedian said First Lady Melania Trump had “the glow of a pregnant widow.”
While some interpreted the monologue as an inappropriate remark that could spark political violence, Kimmel later said the quip was about the Trumps’ “age difference.” Both the first lady and the president subsequently called for the comedian’s removal.
Kimmel responded Monday: “By definition, this is not a call for assassination.” “And they know it. I’ve been very vocal over the years, especially against gun violence.”
However, not everyone supports these claims. In fact, the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB), a nonpartisan group of Christian broadcasters, filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking an investigation into ABC Television over Kimmel’s comments.
NRB CEO and President Troy Miller told CBN News why he and the NRB found the comments to be at least beyond common sense.
“[Kimmel]is making this comment about[Melania Trump]being a widow. This is for a woman whose husband, the president of the United States, suffered two assassination attempts in his life,” he said. “And at the very least, you can say that this joke was… disrespectful to the first lady and the office, but I think we all know that at worst, these kinds of jokes actually incite violence in our culture today.”
Miller said the NRB is known for protecting freedom of speech and religion, but there are “boundaries” people must abide by.
“You can’t walk into a movie theater and yell, ‘Fire!'” he says. “You must not incite violence. That’s clearly written into the Federal Communications Act and the law.”
Miller continued, “So I consulted with General Counsel Mike Farris. … We reviewed the footage multiple times and determined that indeed Jimmy Kimmel had crossed the line, so we filed a complaint with the FCC and asked them to investigate it under their guidelines.”
Miller said the FCC should take those words seriously in the wake of the assassination attempt and murder of conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirk.
“We hope that they will first do an investigation and investigate this matter,” he said. “And if they meet the standard for speech that incites violence, then ABC and Jimmy Kimmel must pay the price.”
Miller isn’t convinced by Kimmel’s response that he was just joking about the age difference. He called the reaction “spin.”
“This is spin,” he said. “I watched that clip over and over again, and there was no suggestion anywhere that what he was referring to was the age difference between Donald Trump and his wife Melania.”
Miller continued: “He can change things however he wants, but I think everyone knows what he was talking about was getting rid of the president.”
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