Jimmy Kimmel has used Donald Trump’s press ban to roast the president’s relationship with his wife.
The late-night host tore into Trump for invoking an unprecedented attack on the press. The 80-year-old president barred CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House–a move that is being legally contested and also prompted other major outlets to boycott the president in solidarity.
“I mentioned last night that, as a result of Trump’s ban on CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, the major networks, including Fox, have decided to pull what is known as press pool coverage,” Kimmel began on Tuesday.
“The outlets take turns providing a live TV feed of all the president’s events,” he continued. “But then they suspended that coverage in protest of the ban, which has to drive Trump even crazier than he already is.”
“There’s nothing this man loves more than being on television. And right now, thanks to his own dumb actions, the only camera at the White House is the Ring camera Melania had mounted on her bedroom door to keep him out of it,” quipped Kimmel.
The dig at Melania and her husband came in a larger conversation about Trump’s bizarre move. Kimmel said, “There is no defense for why the White House would ban three reputable news organizations because he doesn’t like what they have to say.”
He described the Trump administration’s assault on the press as one of the “nonsensical, unconstitutional, knee-jerk reactions he has to everything.”
CNN, MS Now, and Politico filed a lawsuit on Monday in order to restore their access to the White House and defend their First Amendment rights.
“Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,” they said. “Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
Trump has defended his decision and denied that it’s an attack on the freedom of the press. “Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America,” he said, adding that other “Fake News Media Outlets” will be next.
The lawsuit called the president’s decision “chilling.”
