CNN
By Brian Stelter, CNN
(CNN) — Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel found himself defending Americans’ right to free speech on Monday, after a joke he made several days ago prompted calls from the White House for ABC to fire him – again.
“You know sometimes you wake up in the morning and the first lady puts out a statement demanding you be fired from your job? We’ve all been there, right?” Kimmel asked at the beginning of his monologue on Monday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
“What a day.”
The pressure – which is also coming from President Donald Trump and a host of his allies – has created a headache for new Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro, who succeeded Bob Iger just six weeks ago.
The Kimmel controversy is the first major Trump test for D’Amaro, who previously ran Disney’s theme parks and now oversees networks like ABC as well.
Kimmel quipped on last Thursday’s episode that the First Lady had “a glow like an expectant widow.”
“It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am,” Kimmel said (Donald Trump is 79; Melania Trump is 56).
But after a gunman opened fire outside the dinner ballroom at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday, Trump and his allies have recontextualized the joke as a call to violence.
“It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination,” Kimmel said in Monday’s monologue. “And they know that. I’ve been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence in particular.”
“I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject,” Kimmel said. “I also should point out Donald Trump is allowed to say whatever he wants to say, as are you and as am I and as are all of us, because under the First Amendment we have as Americans the right to free speech.”
There is no indication that Disney is thinking about firing Kimmel.
A spokesperson for D’Amaro did not respond to a request for comment. Representatives for ABC and Kimmel have also remained tight-lipped since the controversy erupted.
But actions speak louder than comments, and Monday’s actions – like the business-as-usual attitude at Kimmel’s show – signaled that Disney is not buckling under Trump’s pressure.
Behind the scenes, ABC executives and Kimmel likely discussed what he might say on Monday night’s show about the controversy.
“He has to say something tonight, I think, that is conciliatory in a way,” but addresses the First Amendment issues at stake,” veteran late-night reporter Bill Carter said on “Anderson Cooper 360.”
Pro-Trump media outlets and influencers blasted Kimmel online after Saturday, foreshadowing a concerted effort from the Trump administration to push him out.
The alleged gunman was charged Monday with attempting to assassinate Trump.
The first lady condemned Kimmel on Monday morning, and the president followed up a few hours later, calling Kimmel’s on-air comment a “despicable call to violence” and linking it directly to the shooting incident.
Disney rerun
For Disney, this all feels a