Fox News host Brian Kilmeade says he disagrees with at least one of President Donald Trump’s takes on Jimmy Kimmel.
Kilmeade said Thursday evening that the suspended ABC star is “a talented guy,” rebutting Trump’s rant from earlier in the day in which he asserted that Kimmel “is not a talented person.”
“He had very bad ratings, and they should have fired him a long time ago,” Trump told reporters in London. “So you know, you can call that free speech or not—he was fired for lack of talent.”
Kimmel, 57, has not been fired. He has been “indefinitely” suspended by ABC after he refused to tone down his response to right-wing outrage over his remarks on Monday night regarding Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin, reports Puck.
Kilmeade, 61, disagreed with Trump about his counterpart’s talent, but he agreed with him on just about everything else surrounding Kimmel.
“Well, he’s a talented guy, even if that was not a good joke, and maybe he’s very anti-Trump,” Kilmeade said. “Meanwhile, Trump is probably on to something. Since 2015, when it comes to ratings, which is the year that Donald Trump stepped into the political arena, Jimmy Kimmel has just cut his audience in half.”
Kilmeade continued, “And it’s far worse, he lost 70 percent of the coveted key demo, young people, 25 to 54. So when you’re on thin ice with your boss and not performing well, it’s probably not a good idea to tick them off and spout garbage about a political assassination.”
The right-wing host said the muzzling of Kimmel is “old-fashioned accountability,” not “fascism” or the “Gestapo taking out a late-night host for what he said.”
Kimmel’s show was pulled from the air after the Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, an appointee of Trump, threatened retribution against ABC if it did not punish Kimmel.
Puck reports that Kimmel was not open to an apology, but instead wanted to give a monologue where he not only clarified his controversial words, but also “attacked Fox News by name” and “right-wingers on social media” who he felt mischaracterized his remark.”
The website reported that Kimmel met with a top Disney executive in Los Angeles on Thursday. The meeting was “cordial,” it reported, but little progress was made about possibly getting Kimmel back on the air.
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