Melania Trump blasts Jimmy Kimmel’s jokes before correspondents’ dinner as “hateful and violent rhetoric”

First lady Melania Trump, in a rare statement Monday, called jokes made by comedian Jimmy Kimmel days before the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner “hateful and violent rhetoric.” President Trump joined the first lady’s criticism of Kimmel and called for the late-night host to be fired.

“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn’t comedy- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America,” Melania Trump posted on social media. “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate. A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him.”

Melania Trump was sitting next to Mr. Trump on Saturday at the correspondents’ dinner when gunshots rang out and they were evacuated from the ballroom. No one was injured and the suspected gunman, Cole Allen, was tackled and taken into custody. He is set to appear in federal court on Monday.

On his show on Thursday, Kimmel took “a page from the Kid Rock alternative half-time show” and created a mock White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which has featured comedians in the past but this year was set to feature mentalist Oz Pearlman. In the skit, Kimmel referred to Melania Trump as having a “glow like an expectant widow.” 

The first lady said that ABC should “take a stand” against Kimmel.

On Monday afternoon, the president explicitly called for Kimmel to be fired.

“I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”

CBS News has reached out to ABC for comment. 

Kimmel was pulled from the air for several nights in September after being criticized by conservatives, including Mr. Trump, for his remarks in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk assassination. Kimmel had said that America “hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang 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.”  

Kimmel did not issue a blanket apology for the remarks, but he did say he could see how they were offensive to some. When he returned to the air on Sept. 23, he said it was “not my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what was obviously a deeply disturbed individual,” referring to the alleged gunman, who is in custody pending trial.