A former writer for Jimmy Kimmel has absolutely savaged Donald Trump’s attack on late-night hosts who have “displeased” him during a House Judiciary Committee.
Bess Kalb, who wrote for Kimmel’s late-night show for eight years until 2020, joined Democrats in Monday’s hearing on Capitol Hill titled “Silencing Dissent: The First Amendment Under Attack.”
During her speech, Kalb admitted that for comedy writers, the 79-year-old Trump “is our best and worst audience.”
“He is our best audience, because unlike most Americans, he watches late-night television,” Kalb said. “He cares about what the network men in suits say about him.”
The writer then took aim at Trump’s persistently bruised right hand, which he attempts to cover with makeup.
“He is our worst audience, because his inexplicably bruised skin is very, very thin,” she said. “He complained about our jokes frequently. Often in real time, on his own social media site [Truth Social] he invented so that nobody could make fun of him on it.”
Kalb pointed out that despite Trump claiming he was anti-censorship and pro-free speech, he has spent his second term getting revenge on his enemies. That included gloating over Stephen Colbert’s show not being renewed by CBS and Jimmy Kimmel having his program taken off air.
“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was bulldozed like it was the East Wing of the White House,” Kalb said in one of her many back-to-back MAGA zingers, referencing Trump’s ballroom construction.
She then added that “emboldened” by the precedent set by Colbert’s show ending, Jimmy Kimmel Live! was “briefly yanked off air” because the monologue about a MAGA reaction to the murder of right-wing figure Charlie Kirk “displeased” Trump.
“I want to be fair,” she said. “The Trump administration denies responsibility for these cancellations, much as the mafia is continuously surprised that so many people end up in the East River with cement blocks on their feet.”
Doubling down on Trump’s “prized free speech and so-loathed censorship,” Kalb then mentioned Trump being “positively giddy” on his Truth Social account about Kimmel’s show being temporarily taken off air, after his orders to FCC head Brendan Carr.
Kalb said that to “kill a late-night show” does not just eliminate a large platform for “speaking truth to power,” but also impacts TV programs that reach a wide and diverse audience.
“I believe late-night hosts, like Colbert and Kimmel, are vital satirists, who shape how millions of Americans absorb the day’s news,” Kalb said.
“At 11:30 every weeknight, millions of people all over the country, just before their melatonin gummies hit, listen to what these comedians have to say about what happened in America that day. And under any administration, they are powerful voices of criticism and dissent.”
Stating that hosts like Colbert and Kimmel used their platforms to “make tangible, incremental, ideological change through satire dressed up in a suit,” she said they hope that people watching up late “will hear the news reflected back to them, through a lens that is openly critical of the government. No matter who is in the Oval Office. And that can shape an electorate’s opinion.”
Kalb added, “And let’s be clear, they’re also doing interviews with The Bachelorette.”
The writer said Trump’s permanent and temporary cancellations of late night shows aren’t about “controlling” jokes.
“They’re about controlling criticism of the administration and its corporate bedfellows. It is the state using its power to shape what is profitable to say. And we’ve learned nothing if not this: the bottom line comes first, even before the First Amendment.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
