FCC Asked To Investigate Jimmy Kimmel As Trump Demands Disney Fire Him

By Khaleda RahmanNational CorrespondentShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberSee more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.The National Religious Broadcasters association (NRB) has filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, asking it to investigate ABC following Jimmy Kimmel's joke about first lady Melania Trump having "the glow of an expectant widow."The comedian made the remark on Thursday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, in which he pretended to deliver a comedy routine at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner.The real dinner, two days later on Saturday night, was cut short after a man armed with guns and knives tried to storm the ballroom. Cole Allen, 31, was later charged with the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump.On Monday, the president and first lady both called on ABC to fire Kimmel, who had been taken off the air under pressure from the FCC last year following comments he made about the assassination of conservative commentator and Trump ally Charlie Kirk.Kimmel has defended the "expectant widow" joke and said it was "not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination."The NRB, a group consisting of members employed in Christian media, said Kimmel's remarks "when viewed in context, raise concerns about the normalization and potential incitement of political violence." It also requested the FCC to conduct a "full and impartial investigation to determine whether federal law or Commission precedent was violated.""We're seeing a pattern of violence in this country that didn't appear overnight," Troy Miller, NRB's president and CEO, said in a statement."When influential voices joke about death or treat political opponents as disposable, it contributes to a culture where violence feels thinkable to the already unstable. National platforms carry real weight, and with that comes responsibility. That's why this warranted action."...What Did Jimmy Kimmel Say About Melania Trump?The latest controversy stems from a skit on Thursday’s show in which Kimmel, dressed in a tuxedo and standing behind a podium, pretended to deliver a comic routine at the WHCA. The segment had staged cutaways to the Trumps and others that were taken from video clips.At one point, Kimmel noted the first lady in the "audience," saying: “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow."Other jokes in the parody focused on the perceived distance between the president and first lady and imagined how she might spend her birthday.Kimmel defended the joke during his monologue on Monday night, saying it was “not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination.”He added that it was "a very light roast joke about the fact that he's almost 80 and she's younger than I am."He said he was sorry that the president and everyone at the event went through that traumatic and scary experience.“I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject,” Kimmel said. “I do, and I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.”Donald Trump Renews Call for Kimmel's FiringTrump wrote on Truth Social on Monday that Kimmel "should be immediately fired" by ABC and its parent company, The Walt Disney Company."I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel's despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this…

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