A top MAGA figure is trying out a ridiculous new method of going after Jimmy Kimmel.
Kimmel has found himself in MAGA’s crosshairs of late for ill-timed jokes about mortality. First, he said Melania Trump had the “glow of an expectant widow” days before President Donald Trump was caught up in an apparent assassination attempt. Now, Kimmel is being slammed for a joke about the Trumpy former New York City mayor, Rudy Giuliani.
“So last night, America’s mayor, Rudy Giuliani, rose from the grave to weigh in on the ongoing drama involving me,” the late-night host said in a monologue on Tuesday, referencing his joke about the first lady. Giuliani had called Kimmel “one of the most distasteful human beings in this country” for his Melania joke.
Five days later, Giuliani’s spokesman announced that the 81-year-old had been hospitalized and was in a critical condition. MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson has suggested a link between Kimmel’s jokes and the health scares that have come afterward.
“After making Trump assassination jokes, Jimmy Kimmel joked about Rudy Giuliani last week, saying he ‘rose from the grave.’ It was just announced tonight that Rudy was hospitalized and is in critical condition,” he wrote on X on Sunday. “Why is Kimmel always joking about death?”
His post led some Trump diehards to surmise that something untoward was going on. “It’s almost like Kimmel knows something is going to happen a day or two before it does…hmmmmmm,” one suspicious person responded.
Giuliani’s spokesperson, Ted Goodman, did not specify which hospital he was in but said in a statement shared to X on Sunday that he “remains in critical but stable condition.”
“Mayor Giuliani is a fighter who has faced every challenge in his life with unwavering strength, and he’s fighting with that same level of strength as we speak,” Goodman said. “We do ask that you join us in prayer for America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani.”
Giuliani hinted at his own ill health on his show on Friday. During the episode of America’s Mayor Live, he said in a particularly hoarse voice that he was “a little under the weather.”
The president offered his support to his former personal lawyer in a post on Truth Social. “Our fabulous Rudy Giuliani, a True Warrior, and the Best Mayor in the History of New York City, BY FAR, has been hospitalized, and is in critical condition,” Trump, 79, wrote. “What a tragedy that he was treated so badly by the Radical Left Lunatics, Democrats ALL — AND HE WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING! They cheated on the Elections, fabricated hundreds of stories, did anything possible to destroy our Nation, and now, look at Rudy. So sad!"
Giuliani was previously hospitalized in August after getting into a car accident in New Hampshire.
Kimmel, meanwhile, faced a huge backlash to his comments about Melania Trump, made in a parody of the White House Correspondents’ Association broadcast two days before a gunman tried to attack the event. The first lady described his sketch as “hateful and violent,” and the White House urged his network, ABC, to fire him.
He rejected the criticism in his first monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the attempted shooting. The comedian said the joke was “a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s [President Trump] almost 80 and she’s younger than I am.”
“It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination and they know that, I’ve been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence in particular,” he added.
“I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject, I think a great place to start to dial that back is having a conversation with your husband about it.”
