Megyn Kelly lashed out at anyone who dared defend Jimmy Kimmel for his incendiary monologue joke about the first lady looking like an “expectant widow.”
“I bet Jimmy Kimmel would love to see Trump assassinated,” Kelly, 55, declared on her eponymous show on Tuesday.
The conservative media personality melted down over CBS star Gayle King’s defense of the late-night host after Trump, 79, publicly called for his firing. King, 71, said Kimmel was “not some crazy person who would wish the president to be killed.”
“Who cares what you think? You can’t get inside of Jimmy Kimmel’s head. And you know what? If we’re going to play that game, I disagree with you strongly,” Kelly ranted.
“I actually think he would love it. I think he loathes him with a passion as bright as 10,000 suns. I do not give him the benefit of the doubt on that at all," she continued.
Over the weekend, MAGA media exploded about Kimmel’s Thursday monologue, where he parodied the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. At one point, Kimmel cut to a video of Melania and joked, “Look at her, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have the glow like an expectant widow.”
Just two days later, a gunman fired shots at the WHCA dinner in D.C., which was attended by the Presidential pair as well as numerous high-ranking officials.
In the aftermath of the shooting, both Trump and the first lady called for ABC to ax the late-night host. On Tuesday, the Trump-appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission challenged the network’s broadcasting licenses, held by ABC parent company Disney, according to two reports.
In his first monologue after the shooting, Kimmel refused to apologize and stood by his joke.
“It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination,” Kimmel said. “And they know that. I’ve been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence, in particular.”
The late-night host was also defended by George Clooney, who cited Karoline Leavitt’s “shots will be fired” comment before the dinner as his primary example.
“Jimmy’s a comedian, and I would argue that Karoline Leavitt didn’t mean shots should be fired,” Clooney told Variety. “She was making a joke. Fair enough.”
Kelly, who publicly sparred with Clooney last Spring, tore into the Hollywood A-lister.
“You would think if you were a leftist, now might be a good time, if you like Kimmel and you hate Trump, to just keep your mouth shut. Don’t pile on because you could get dragged down, too,” Kelly said. “But the problem is George Clooney has a God complex.”
Kelly contorted her face to mock Clooney’s “bizarre” expression, before launching into a tirade on the difference between Kimmel and Leavitt’s statements.
“Karoline obviously was actually not joking. That was not a joke. It’s what we call an idiom, George. Figure of speech,” she said. “That’s not at all the same as what Jimmy Kimmel did, which was bad taste, classless, borderline call for violence.”
“OK, it was a joke—I agree,” Kelly continued. “The question is whether it was in good taste, whether it had class, and whether it should be allowed at a place like ABC.”
