Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet criticized comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s response to the backlash over his comments regarding Charlie Kirk’s killing, arguing that the late-night host offered excuses rather than the apology owed to the Kirk family and the public.
“What we need is, ‘I’m sorry, I lied, I was wrong, and I won’t do it again. And my apologies to the Kirk family and Erika Kirk,’” Kolvet said on “America’s Newsroom” Wednesday.
“When somebody like Jimmy Kimmel says that the shooter of Charlie was MAGA, what he’s really saying is that it’s OK to lie about conservatives, that their lives don’t matter, that his agenda, his political agenda and cultural agenda, is more important than the life of my friend who was just taken from us and robbed from us.”
Nexstar Media Group announced on Tuesday that it will continue to preempt “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” despite Disney allowing the show to return to ABC.
Kimmel was suspended for nearly a week after Disney and other broadcasters deemed his remarks insensitive following Kirk’s killing earlier this month.
On Sept. 15, days after Kirk’s alleged killer was taken into custody, Kimmel said: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
The suspension ended Tuesday, when Kimmel returned with a tearful statement.
“It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,” he said in part, adding that he did not mean to blame Trump supporters for the killing.
Kolvet dismissed the remarks as insufficient.
“Where was the, ‘I’m sorry,’ where was the contrition?” he asked.
“All he had to do was say simply, ‘I am sorry, I won’t do it again, I will do better.’ Instead, he was defiant, he parsed his words, he tried to thread a needle and play both sides. And that’s not how we get healing in this country.”
Kolvet argued that Kimmel’s emotion appeared more rooted in fear of cancellation than in genuine remorse.
“When people like Jimmy Kimmel skirt the truth, when they refuse to take accountability for their actions, then that sends a signal that there’s a whole institutional machinery apparatus that’s prepared to defend these evildoers. And that’s not OK.”
During his Tuesday night monologue, Kimmel also noted he was “touched deeply” by Erika Kirk, Charlie’s widow and new CEO of Turning Point USA, who publicly forgave her husband’s alleged killer during a memorial service in Arizona on Sunday.
“If you believe in the teachings of Jesus, as I do, there it was. That’s it. A selfless act of grace, forgiveness from a grieving widow. It touched me deeply, and I hope it touches many, and if there’s anything we should take from this tragedy to carry forward, I hope it can be that,” Kimmel said.
Kolvet said that if Kimmel wants to be forgiven for his insensitive statements, he must take responsibility for his words.
“I still want him to own it and be accountable to the audience, to the country, because it matters,” he said.
