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Stephen Colbert has fiercely criticized President Donald Trump in a bold defense of Jimmy Kimmel after the sudden cancellation of Kimmel’s late night show on ABC.
The late night host, whose own show is set to conclude in June due to issues with President Trump, devoted his Thursday program to discuss free speech and express solidarity with Kimmel’s team at ABC.
‘This is blatant censorship,’ Colbert said of Kimmel’s ouster at the taping for the show, which is set to air later Thursday night.
He then blasted Trump as an ‘autocrat’ saying ‘you cannot give [him] an inch.’
‘Jimmy, I stand with you and your staff 100 percent.’
‘Tonight, we are all Jimmy Kimmel,’ Colbert then declared.
Speaking during a Q&A session before airing, Colbert mentioned that CBS, which broadcasts The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, “wouldn’t have done this.”
‘Now, regardless of what you think, what has already been done and how that looks, this is weak.’
Stephen Colbert hit out at President Donald Trump on his show Thursday
Colbert said he would ‘stand’ with his colleague Jimmy Kimmel and his staff ‘100 percent’
Colbert, whose show has already been canceled, then called President Donald Trump an ‘autocrat’ in his remarks
Colbert was unexpectedly terminated in July after he spoke out against CBS’s parent company, Paramount, for paying $16 million to settle a lawsuit with President Trump amid a significant merger with Skydance.
He argued on his show that the settlement was a ‘big, fat, bribe’ to the Trump administration to approve the merger.
But Paramount executives announced at the time his show would be continuing through the end of the broadcast season.
In contrast, ABC announced on Wednesday that it was suspending Kimmel’s show “indefinitely” after his controversial comments regarding the individual accused of shooting conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel had incorrectly claimed that Tyler Robinson, 22, was a right-wing member of the MAGA movement.
Instead, investigators have said became radicalized with far-left ideologies and was dating his transgender roommate.
The inaccurate statement sparked outrage among conservatives, and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said he was considering looking into Kimmel and ABC over the comments.
‘When you look at the conduct that has taken place by Jimmy Kimmel, it appears to be some of the sickest conduct possible,’ Carr told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson hours before Kimmel’s ouster was revealed.
ABC announced Wednesday that it was suspending Kimmel’s show ‘indefinitely’ following his remarks about the man accused of shooting conservative commentator Charlie Kirk
At the same time, one of the largest local television operators in the country, Nexstar Communications Group, announced it would no longer air Jimmy Kimmel Live! on its 23 ABC-affiliated stations.
‘Kimmel’s comments about Kirk’s death are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse,’ said Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division.
Executives at ABC are said to have then conducted an emergency meeting, in which they decided to fire Kimmel.
The cancelation was quickly praised by President Trump, who called it ‘great news for America.’ He also praised ABC for ‘finally having the courage to do what had to be done’ as he called for executives at NBC to also oust Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers.
‘Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done,’ he wrote on his Truth Social platform. ‘Kimmel has ZERO talent and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible.’
‘That leaves Jimmy [Fallon] and Seth [Meyers], two total losers on Fake News NBC,’ the president continued.
‘Their ratings are also horrible,’ he said. ‘Do it NBC!!!’
Trump also called for two of Kimmel’s network rivals, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers to be fired
It now remains unclear whether Fallon and Meyers will suffer the same fate as Colbert and Kimmel.
But when Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, was asked on Thursday whether his agency would target the two late night hosts, he simply said: ‘We’ll see how this plays out.’
He noted that the United States is now ‘in the midst of a massive shift in dynamics in the media ecosystem for lots of reasons, including the permission structure that President Trump’s election has provided.
‘And I would simply say we’re not done yet with seeing the consequences of that shift,’ Carr said, ominously.
The FCC chair had also previously accused networks of subsidizing the late night talk shows, as he said said that the FCC expects them ‘to broadly serve the public interests.’
‘I’m very glad to see that America’s broadcasters are standing up to serve the interest of their community,’ Carr said of Kimmel’s termination on Wednesday, after arguing that late night hosts are ‘enforcing a very narrow political ideology.’
