Karoline Leavitt has denied that the White House pressured ABC to suspend Jimmy Kimmel in the wake of his comments about the murder of Charlie Kirk.
Trump’s press secretary emphasized that the decision was purely business-related, despite FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s threat to revoke ABC’s broadcast license.
During an appearance on Fox News’ ‘Saturday in America,’ Leavitt, 28, claimed that Kimmel suggested ‘the MAGA gang’ was trying to depict the suspect in Kirk’s assassination as not one of their own earlier this week.
ABC affiliates refused to air Kimmel’s show Wednesday over his comments, after which ABC and Disney made the decision to pull the show entirely.
‘The decision to fire Jimmy Kimmel and to cancel his show came from executives at ABC,’ Leavitt first told host Kayleigh McEnany.
‘And I can assure you, it did not come from the White House, and that there was no pressure given from the president of the United States.
‘How do I know that, Kayleigh?’ Leavitt continued. ‘I was with the President of the United States when this news came from the United Kingdom. I was the one who informed President Trump of this development.
He was unaware of the situation. The decision was made by ABC because Jimmy Kimmel opted to intentionally mislead his viewers about the demise of a well-respected individual at a time when our nation is grieving.
Karoline Leavitt, during her Fox News’s ‘Saturday in America’ appearance, refuted the notion that Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension was connected to the White House.
On Monday, Kimmel accused ‘the MAGA gang’ of attempting to depict the suspect in Kirk’s assassination as disassociated from them, prompting several ABC affiliates to skip airing his show. Consequently, executives at ABC and its parent company decided to remove the show completely.
‘That was a decision that he made, and he is now facing a consequence for that decision and for that lie,’ Leavitt said.
Critics, however, continue to denounce Kimmel’s suspension as a form of censorship.
On Friday, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner asked ‘Where has all the leadership gone?’ on X.
On Thursday, former Late Show host David Letterman suggested the move could be traced back to, ‘an authoritarian, maybe a dictatorship’.
Leavitt’s denial in part came in response to an X post from former President Barack Obama accusing the administration of ‘cancel culture’.
On Thursday, hundreds of Americans took part in a protest organized by the Writers Guild of America and the group Burbank Against ICE in Burbank, California, centered around the defense of free speech and fears or fascism.
On Friday, a man was arrested in connection with a shooting that saw bullets fired through a lobby window at the ABC affiliate in Sacramento, California.
On Wednesday, before Kimmel was pulled, FCC boss Carr appeared on conservative podcaster Benny Johnson’s show to say he considering a federal investigation into the host and his network over his on-air comments.
‘The decision to fire Jimmy Kimmel and to cancel his show came from executives at ABC,’ Leavitt told Kayleigh McEnany Saturday. ‘And I can assure you, it did not come from the White House, and that there was no pressure given from the president of the United States’
‘And how do I know that, Kayleigh? Because I was with the president of the United State when this news broke in the [UK],’ Leavitt said. ‘And I actually brought this news to President Trump’s attention.’ The two are pictured on Air Force One Thursday, a day after the decision
Specifically, Carr floated the idea of a suspension for the host as one of several prospective ‘remedies’ for the situation.
The FCC boss also said: ‘It’s really sort of past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast and Disney and say, “Listen, we are going to… we’re not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out.”‘
Within hours, more than a dozen stations across the US were telling both ABC and Disney it would not be airing Kimmel’s show.
The fate of Kimmel’s show for now remains uncertain, as Disney’s decision to suspend the host ‘indefinitely’ has paved the way for talks between the host and his bosses designed to bring the show back to the air.
However, a meeting between Disney and Kimmel on Thursday aimed at finding a way forward reportedly ended without resolution.
An insider told the Wall Street Journal that Disney is monitoring the situation and sees a path forward for a Kimmel return ‘in the next several days’.
