Unlike his reaction when he was similarly excoriated for his remarks about Charlie Kirk after the conservative activist’s assassination, Kimmel’s on-air comments following the attempt to take Trump’s life were genuinely thoughtful:
“Can those of us who constantly put out anger really say we haven’t contributed to an atmosphere that demonizes the other side? I’m not sure of the answer. But I do know this: I won’t pretend and say I’ll never joke again just to cleanse my image. What truly deserves reflection is not comedy itself but the line where mocking politicians slips into mocking people’s very humanity. I will keep speaking but I will do it more intelligently and more carefully.”
I also think it is foolish and incompetent for Republicans, conservatives and media critics to make Kimmel the symbol of what is otherwise an ethical outrage as well as a long-running ethics train wreck. The Axis of Unethical Conduct is deliberately trying to provoke violence against this President, his party, his followers, his supporters and his administration, and has been doing it for many years. The villains here are the Democrats and their lackeys in the news media. Jimmy Kimmel is, as the saying goes, “small potatoes”—in this case, an innocent small potato.
Ethics Alarms 
I’m not sure I agree. If this is a standard issue joke, does it really apply here? Does Donald Trump look like Jay Howard Marshall II in that photograph? In the joke’s scenario, how was Mrs. Trump to become widowed? Certainly not from natural causes. I was not aware of this being a standard issue joke. It didn’t make sense to me. In Kimmel’s satire, if he was roasting the president, wouldn’t he be there in the room? Wouldn’t he be alive? Maybe it’s just incompetent writing by the ABC writers.
Well sure it does. Trump is almost 80 (his birthday is in June). Melania is 56. My dad called 80 “the Red Zone,” meaning once you hit that age, waking up each morning is far from assured. She was a model, married Trump when she was 39 (and he was 60): she’s a textbook trophy wife. And she stands to inherit a fortune when he predeceases her, which is extremely likely.
The joke isn’t violent, so I agree on that. He isn’t responsible for any assassinations, but he isn’t funny, and he has no class. Those are good grounds to fire him. He’s too old to have any hope he will change.
No, Kimmel could not have known there would be another attempt in the wake of his joke, but there is still a big ick factor here. Kimmel is one of the so-called Resistance members who have spewed hate against Trump for years and, with the guise of the Jester’s Excuse, tries to avoid any consequences for contributing to the toxicity of civic discourse in this country. There have already been attempts made against Trump’s life. Joking about him dying soon is a little to close for comfort.
Second. Better said than my attempt.
Technically Jack is correct here. My question is why we should care. Given all the censorship and cancel culture from the left in the last decades, I am a bit jaded about Jimmy Kimmel’s fortunes, and I think the burden of defending him should be carried by himself and his leftwing friends as long as the left is trying to cancel conservatives.
By the way, he is not funny, and that is the deadliest thing you can say about a comedian.
The sophistry of Kimmel’s first statement undermines his last. Especially for a comedian who’s job is to “read the room” (“I’m not sure” my arse).
And given the state of the left today and mass media (as Steve Hayward would often write, “but I repeat myself”), how do we know he wasn’t aware of at least the possibility? A mass media event at a hotel that was likely booked solid weeks in advance? Someone shady checks in and the desk clerks don’t know a reporter?
Yes, conspiratorial, surely, and reeks of Network, but in the modern age I’m not sure that’s far off. And on that side, there are no William Holden types that get a conscience at the end.
This is the kind of thing the left foments and hopes for all while feigning “horror” when it takes place. Renee Good didn’t deserve to get shot. Alex Pretti had a right to carry, he didn’t deserve to get shot. Look at how evil the administration is! The organizers of those events absolutely hoped somebody would be injured or killed, it’s very sexy media to spout off about while we on the right are stuck trotting out the boring old law as a (right and just) explanation.
Kimmel’s joke and apology is just another part in their grand play.
Useful idiots.