Barack Obama: Jimmy Kimmel’s Suspension Is a ‘Brazen Attack’

On Wednesday, ABC announced that it was suspending Jimmy Kimmel Live! “indefinitely,” two days after Kimmel mildly criticized Trump supporters for misrepresenting Charlie Kirk’s suspected killer. “The MAGA Gang is 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 host said during Monday night’s show. Kimmel also played a clip of Trump bragging about the White House’s $200 million ballroom in response to a reporter’s question about Kirk, sarcastically observing that the president was “grieving.”

Kimmel’s suspension is the latest development in the entertainment industry’s apparent willingness to punish public figures for criticizing Trump. In July, CBS announced that it was yanking The Late Show With Stephen Colbert off the air in May. (The company cited poor performance and financial constraints, but tellingly, Colbert has long been a vocal critic of the Trump administration.) In response to the Kimmel news, prominent figures from comedy, television, film, and politics have condemned ABC’s suspension as a blatant attack on free speech. Here’s what they said.

Barack Obama

The MSNBC commentator wrote on X, “This is the most straightforward attack on free speech from state actors I’ve ever seen in my life and it’s not even close.”

Gavin Newsom

The California governor and outspoken Trump critic wrote, “Buying and controlling media platforms. Firing commentators. Canceling shows. These aren’t coincidences. It’s coordinated. And it’s dangerous. The @GOP does not believe in free speech. They are censoring you in real time.”

Writers Guild of America

“The right to speak our minds and to disagree with each other — to disturb, even — is at the very heart of what it means to be a free people,” the union said in a Wednesday statement. “It is not to be denied. Not by violence, not by the abuse of governmental power, nor by acts of corporate cowardice.”

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Sophia Bush

The actress wrote on X, “The First Amendment doesn’t exist in America anymore. Period. Fascism is here and it’s chilling.”

Alex Edelman

Edelman called Kimmel’s suspension “the actual cancel culture everyone claims to hate so much,” and wrote in a separate post on X, “Republicans are free to draw whatever fake-ass equivalence they like, but the fact a comedian can’t say something in his monologue without the government coming after him for it? That’s censorship I can’t find anywhere else in the 21st century.”

Kathy Griffin

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The comedian wrote on Instagram: “Please, take it from me, it is very important to have Jimmy Kimmel’s back right now. Be vocal. Be an ideological consumer. Money is all their crown cares about.”

Jean Smart

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The actress shared a photo of her and Kimmel on Instagram, writing, “I am horrified at the cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel Live. What Jimmy said was FREE speech, not hate speech. People seem to only want to protect free speech when it suits THEIR agenda. Though I didn’t agree at ALL with Charlie Kirk; his shooting death sickened me; and should have sickened any decent human being. What is happening to our country?”

Don Lemon

The former CNN personality posted a selfie video to Threads, writing, “The Jimmy Kimmel Live! show has been preempted indefinitely over a joke. This should send a chill down everyone’s spine in America!”

John Legend

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The singer shared a screengrab of a post by Atlantic staff writer David Frum to his Instagram Story: “How dare you call us fascists just because our appointees threaten government retaliation against broadcast networks if their comedians don’t say what we want them to say.”