WASHINGTON: First Lady Melania Trump joined President Trump in a separate rebuke of the media, censuring late-night host Jimmy Kimmel on Monday after he had joked that she looked like an 'expectant widow' in a parody of the aborted White House Correspondents' Association dinner that he made before the security scare.
Kimmel delivered a satirical monologue before the event, imagining how the annual dinner might have unfolded, with several jokes about Trump, calling him a 'drama queen' before turning to the First Lady, quipping, 'Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.'
On Monday, the First Lady issued an unusually direct statement calling the jokes 'cruel and irresponsible,' accusing Kimmel of trivializing a moment when lives were at risk and warning that such humor 'normalizes mockery of violence against public officials and their families.'
President Trump called for the sacking of Kimmel. 'Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC' over the 'despicable call to violence,' he said on Monday.
Trump's critics, however, argue the outrage is selective, pointing to numerous instances in which Trump has used combative language that they say has encouraged violence. 'Good, I'm glad he's dead… he can no longer hurt innocent people,' Trump said recently about the death of former FBI director Robert Mueller.
