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O’Reilly: Kimmel ‘shouldn’t be on the air’

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by Sarah Davis - 04/28/26 10:57 AM ET

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by Sarah Davis - 04/28/26 10:57 AM ET

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Conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly is calling for late night host Jimmy Kimmel to be taken off the air for a joke he made days before the shooting at the White House Correspondents Association dinner over the weekend.

“He shouldn’t be on the air, of course,” the conservative commentator told NewsNation on Monday. “He’s not a comedian. He’s not a satirist. He’s there to hate President Trump.”

During a taping of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” last week, the comedian quipped that first lady Melania Trump was an “expectant widow.”

The comment was aired two days before a man fired his gun the Washington Hilton just steps away from the stairs leading to the ballroom where the dinner was taking place. Trump, the first lady and senior administration officials were safely evacuated.

The suspect, Cole Allen, was quickly taken down and later charged with attempting an assassination of the president and multiple firearms offenses.

Following the incident on Saturday evening, Melania Trump condemned the joke, while the president demanded Kimmel’s firing.

“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country,” she said in a statement posted on social media. “His monologue about my family isn’t comedy- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America.”

“People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate,” the firsy lady added.

Kimmel responded to the criticism, clarifying that the joke was meant as a “very light roast” about the age gap between the 56-year-old first lady and the president, who is 79.

“It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination, and they know that,” the comedian said during his Monday monologue. “I’ve been very vocal for many years, speaking out against gun violence in particular.”

Republicans are continuing to call for ABC’s parent company, Disney, to cancel Kimmel’s show.

“We, the people, can’t haul him off the air, but there’s no reason for Jimmy Kimmel to be on there,” O’Reilly said. “What’s the reason? I don’t understand. It’s not entertainment.”

“All he’s trying to do is damage the president of the United States and the office of the presidency,” he added.

Trump has repeatedly called for Kimmel to be taken off the air because of his frequent criticism of his administration. After the ABC host made a joke following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, ABC temporarily pulled the comedian’s show.

O’Reilly called on affiliated stations to “dump” Kimmel following his joke about the first lady.

“I’m about as liberal a man when it comes to freedom of speech, satire, understand it all, I want it to be here, but this is hate,” the commentator said. “That’s what this is, and Disney is trafficking in hate.”

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