White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt spoke with Fox News’ Kayleigh McEnany on her new show, “Saturday in America,” about former President Barack Obama’s remarks on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” being suspended indefinitely.
“With all due respect to former President Barack Obama, he has no idea what he’s talking about,” Leavitt said. “The decision to fire Jimmy Kimmel and cancel his show came from executives at ABC.”
Obama wrote on X Thursday, “After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.”
Leavitt explained that ABC’s decision was not influenced by the White House and that President Donald Trump did not pressure the network.
“And how do I know that, Kayleigh?” she asked. “Because I was with the President when this news broke in the United Kingdom.”
Leavitt said she told Trump about the news during their U.K. visit, and at that time, the president “had no idea this was happening.”
She added, “It was a decision made by ABC because Jimmy Kimmel chose to knowingly lie to his audience on his program about the death of a highly respected man when our country is in a state of mourning. That was a decision he made, and he is now facing a consequence for that decision and for that lie.”
Disney, ABC’s parent company, confirmed to Fox News Digital on Wednesday that Kimmel’s show, which is filmed in Los Angeles, would be pulled “indefinitely.”
Nexstar Media Group, which owns many television stations, said in a press release it would stop airing Kimmel’s show on its ABC affiliates starting Wednesday night “for the foreseeable future” and would replace it with other programming over his comments about Kirk’s alleged assassin. Sinclair Broadcast Group followed the same action.
“Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views or values of the local communities in which we are located,” said Nexstar broadcasting chief Andrew Alford.
On Monday, Kimmel accused conservatives of reaching “new lows” in trying to blame a left-wing ideology for 22-year-old suspect Tyler Robinson, even though prosecutors confirmed those ties in Tuesday’s indictment.
Leavitt pointed out that while Trump is “pleased with this decision,” he had no role in pulling the show. She added that ABC likely made the choice based on business because Kimmel’s ratings were “in the gutter.
