“Real Time” host Bill Maher on Friday condemned ABC for “indefinitely” suspending “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” The program was pulled off the air on Wednesday after Kimmel criticized the right-wing response to last week’s fatal shooting of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
“It was 24 years ago to the day that I made comments on ABC that got me canceled from that network and Jimmy Kimmel took my slot,” Maher said Friday. “Did you know that? At ‘Politically Incorrect?’ Oh yes, I got canceled before cancel even had a culture.”
“This shit ain’t new,” he added. “It’s worse, we’ll get to that, but you know. ABC, they are steady. ABC stands for ‘Always Be Caving.’ So Jimmy, pal, I am with you, I support you, and on the bright side, you don’t have to pretend anymore that you like Disneyland.”
The Walt Disney Company, which operates said theme park, acquired ABC in 1995.
Maher’s former show on the network was canceled in 2002 after he argued that the hijackers involved in the Sept. 11 attacks were not cowards. Kimmel’s show was pulled after he said “the MAGA gang” is desperate to paint Kirk’s suspected gunman “as anything other than one of them.”
Maher said Friday that Kimmel was “wrong” to say so, but that he “shouldn’t lose his job” over the remarks. The HBO host thus joined a burgeoning chorus of Democratic pundits, lawmakers and celebrities — and even a few conservative voices — in decrying the ouster.
Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr, an ally of President Donald Trump, had warned ABC’s leaders that there would be consequences for the network and its affiliates if they didn’t take action to discipline Kimmel over his comments.
Kimmel’s suspension came after Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest owners of local TV stations in the U.S., said they would pull the show after the uproar. Nexstar is currently pursuing a major merger that requires approval from the FCC.
“I think we’ve moved the goalposts so much now, because of what Jimmy Kimmel got fired for, that we forget that as abhorrent … it would be to mock somebody’s death, even if you disagreed with them, completely abhorrent — but not illegal,” Maher said Friday. “I’m sorry.”
He noted, “And this idea that they have, that they seem to be pushing, that we can’t even utter his name? Like he’s the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him? No.”
Randy Holmes/ABC/Getty Images
Trump, Vice President JD Vance and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller have all vowed to crack down on the “radical left,” swiftly blaming it for Kirk’s killing.
Ex-MSNBC political analyst Matthew Dowd was fired from the network last week after suggesting Kirk’s own rhetoric might have contributed to his death. Maher appeared just as frustrated with those comments, meanwhile, as he was about Kimmel’s ousting.
“Matthew Dowd said, ‘You can’t be saying these awful words and then not expect awful actions to take place,’” Maher said Friday. “Yes, you can! I do not expect awful actions to take place. I think this is awful, when you open this window.”
“Like, ‘I didn’t like what he said, it was violent,’ and this and that,” he continued. “Irrelevant! Irrelevant. We don’t shoot people in this country, and we don’t defend it, and we don’t mock their death.”
