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Melania Trump Responds To Jimmy Kimmel’s Savage ‘Widow’ Joke As President Issues Chilling Threat
Melania Trump has responded to Jimmy Kimmel’s savage ‘widow’ joke, after it spiraled into a huge political row.
Kimmel, who has never shied away from criticising Donald Trump, faced backlash after making a controversial joke about the First Lady being an ‘expectant widow.’
The joke, which was intended as a bit of dark humor reflecting on the 24-year age gap between the president and his wife, saw the comedian suggesting Melania had ‘a glow like an expectant widow.’
However, his comments appeared much more dark in nature just 48 hours later, following an assassination attempt on Trump’s life at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel on April 25.
The gunman, later identified as Cole Tomas Allen, managed to storm the event after rushing a security just outside the ballroom where the event was taking place. The suspect ended up taking shots at security personnel, hitting a Secret Service agent, who was wearing a bullet proof vest.
During the ordeal, Trump was forcefully removed from the room, while Melania jumped to the floor and hid under the table.
Motive for the assassination attempt uncovered
The 31-year-old gunman was apprehended at the scene, with investigators quickly discovering he was a guest at the hotel where the event was being held.
On searching his room, they found a manifesto written by the mechanical engineer, outlining his intentions and his motive behind the attempted attack.
Allen referred to himself as the ‘Friendly Federal Assassin,’ and listed his targets from highest to lowest priority — Trump being at the top, along with other officials from his administration.
The FBI director, Kash Patel, was explicitly excluded and hotel staff, hotel guests, and Capitol Police were designated as non-targets ‘if at all possible.’
Allen continued to say he was ‘no longer willing to permit a p***phile, r**ist, and traitor’ to implicate him through inaction, and quoted a moral framework about complicity in oppression, according to the New York Post.
Investigators say the document involved a lot of anti-Trump ideology, with him concluding that he ‘experiences rage thinking about everything this administration has done.’
Trump responds to Kimmel’s joke with a threat
The US president made a strong statement on his Truth Social platform, in which he called Kimmel’s joke a ‘call to violence.’
“Wow, Jimmy Kimmel made a statement on his show that is really shocking,” he wrote. “I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence — this is something far beyond the pale.”
He then issued a direct demand: “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
Most will remember this isn’t the first time Trump has called for Kimmel to be fired from his post, after the comedian was pulled off air following a joke he made about the Republican in September last year.
Melania blasts Kimmel over joke
The First Lady had her own strongly worded response to the joke, issuing a statement in which she accused Kimmel of ‘spreading hate.’
“His monologue about my family isn’t comedy — his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America,” she said. “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”
Melania then turned to the network and said: “Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behaviour at the expense of our community?”
White House officials have also called for ABC to consider disciplinary action.
Kimmel speaks out following backlash
Kimmel himself has since spoken out, following the comments from the Trumps, addressing the backlash directly, and emphasising the fact there is no correlation causal, moral, or otherwise — to the violence at the Correspondents’ Dinner.
“It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am,” he said. “It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination. And they know that.”
Kimmel continued: “I’ve been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence in particular.
“Just because no one got killed doesn’t mean it wasn’t traumatic and scary, and we should come together. But if you want us to believe that a joke I made three days before this dinner had any effect on anything that happened — that’s a stretch.”
Related Article: Jimmy Kimmel Speaks Out After Brutal Melania Trump ‘Widow’ Joke Sparks Outrage
Related Article: Man Accused Of Trump Shooting Attempt Reveals ‘Chilling Reason’ Why He Did It
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