Jimmy Kimmel says President Donald Trump “might have to release the Epstein files to distract us from this” after his efforts to “cancel” him “backfired bigly.”
Tuesday, Sept. 23, Kimmel’s show returned, albeit not in all markets, after being yanked off the air for remarks we already pointed out were wholly innocuous. While Kimmel did use a portion of his monologue to clarify those remarks, saying it was “never my intention to make light of” the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, he also made it clear just how crucial it is to fight not only for the protection of free speech at large, but to ensure, specifically, that our country retains a free press.
“Well, I do tonight,” Kimmel, who was visibly emotional at multiple points in Tuesday night’s monologue, said after playing a clip of Trump purporting that his show had no ratings. “You almost have to feel sorry for him. He tried his best to cancel me. Instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly. He might have to release the Epstein files to distract us from this now.”
With his return, Kimmel added, Disney is now “unjustly” placed in a position of risk. As Kimmel pointed out, Trump “was somehow able to squeeze Colbert out of CBS,” and he’s publicly called for similar fates for others in the late-night space.
“We have to speak out against this because he’s not stopping,” Kimmel said. “It’s not just comedy. He’s gunning for our journalists too. He’s suing them, he’s bullying them. Over the weekend, his foxy friend Pete Hegseth announced a new policy that requires journalists with Pentagon press credentials to sign a pledge promising not to report information that hasn’t been explicitly authorized for release.”
Kimmel continued, “That includes unclassified information. They wanna pick and choose what the news is. I know that’s not as interesting as muzzling a comedian, but it’s so important to have a free press and it’s nuts that we aren’t paying more attention to it.”
See more from Kimmel above, including a shrewd guest appearance from Robert De Niro as “the new chairman of the FCC.”