White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called out Jimmy Kimmel for making a joke about First Lady Melania Trump being an “expectant widow,” as she tied “hateful” rhetoric to Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
Speaking to reporters, Leavitt said that “much of the manifesto would be assassin” is “indistinguishable from the words that we hear daily from some many people.”
She pointed to the first lady’s statement about Kimmel earlier on Monday, in which she called on ABC to “take a stand” against their late-night host. The network has yet to comment.
In his monologue on Thursday, Kimmel did a skit in which he gave an “alternative” White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner routine, pretending that he was speaking to a crowd that included Donald Trump and the first lady, among others. “Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,” Kimmel quipped.
“Having experienced what I did with the first lady on Saturday night, I can tell you that she was anything but that,” Leavitt told reporters. “This kind of rhetoric about the president, the first lady and his supporters, is completely deranged, and it’s unbelievable that the American people are consuming it night after night after night.”
The suspect, Cole Allen is to appear in court on Monday afternoon to face charges. On Saturday, after shots were fired in the lobby of the Washington Hilton, up the stairs from the ballroom, Secret Service rushed Trump and the first lady, as well as other administration officials, from the dais.
More to come.
