Avowed leftist George Clooney doesn’t see anything wrong with what Jimmy Kimmel said about Melania Trump being an “expectant widow.”
The big-time Democrat donor and Hollywood A-lister said as much during a gala event Monday night, even going so far as comparing Kimmel’s joke about the president dying with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt using a popular idiom recently.
“Jimmy’s a comedian, and I would argue that Karoline Leavitt didn’t mean shots should be fired,” Clooney told Variety. “She was making a joke. Fair enough. I look at that side and go, ‘Well, jokes are jokes.’ But the rhetoric is a little dangerous. And we’ve seen it a lot lately.”
Clooney was referring to Leavitt telling Fox News “there will be some shots fired tonight in the room,” before heading into the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
The “Ocean’s 11” actor said he doesn’t believe that you should have “a good relationship with government” and that there should be a “free and fair press.”
Clooney tried to place blame on conservatives, saying the rhetoric “can be toned down.”
“When one side is calling anyone they disagree with traitors to the country, which is a charge that’s punishable by death, just because they don’t agree with someone, I think the rhetoric is a little too heated,” he went on.
Kimmel has been put on blast for a parody he did during which he said, “Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
The clip aired Thursday night, two days before a crazed gunman gained access to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner with the intention of not only killing the president, but taking out everyone in the room if necessary.
The first lady did not take the “joke” lightly. She wrote a scathing X post Monday morning, urging ABC to reprimand the late-night comedian.
“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country,” she wrote. “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.”
“A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him. Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand,” the first lady added. “How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community.”
Kimmel responded to the backlash on Monday night, doubling down and claiming that everyone was overreacting to his bit.
“…Obviously, [it] was a joke about their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they’re together. It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am. It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination,” Kimmel insisted.
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