Appearing Tuesday on Newsmax, Joe Gruters, chair of the Republican National Committee, blasted recent rhetoric from late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel in the wake of gunfire at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
In one monologue last week, Kimmel said: “Our first lady Melania is here. … You have a glow like an expectant widow.”
After the foiled attack, Melania Trump called for Kimmel to be fired, which was echoed by President Donald Trump.
“Shame on Jimmy Kimmel,” Gruters said on “Carl Higbie FRONTLINE.” “The president and Melania are both correct by saying he should be fired. He knew exactly what he was doing.”
Kimmel “doubled down,” Gruters added. “He doesn’t want to accept responsibility. But that’s exactly why we’re where we are, this terrible rhetoric on the left. They keep on ratcheting it up.”
“It’s enough,” Gruters continued. “Shame on these guys.”
Kimmel addressed the backlash in a subsequent monologue Monday, defending the joke as political satire rather than a call to violence and pushing back against demands that ABC fire him.
“You know how sometimes you wake up in the morning and the first lady puts out a statement demanding you be fired from your job?” Kimmel said, referencing Melania Trump’s public criticism and reiterating his position that the joke was not intended to incite harm.
He said the comment was aimed at the Trumps’ public image and age gap, not at encouraging violence, while emphasizing his opposition to political violence and defending his right to comedic expression.
Gruters noted that this was the third attempt on Trump’s life.
“He should be dead after Butler,” Gruters said, referring to the July 2024 attack in Pennsylvania. “God saved him that day so that the president can not only save the country, but the world.”
The RNC leader said Trump Derangement Syndrome is real.
“The more the president succeeds, the more these guys hate on him,” Gruters said.
Leave a Reply