Former US president Barack Obama has stepped into the Jimmy Kimmel debate for the second time this week, slamming media companies for bowing to Trump administration’s pressure by suspending the host’s late-night show. He said the move showed the very “cancel culture” that those in power had once opposed.
‘A new and dangerous level,’ warns Obama
Obama on Thursday said that the suspension of Kimmel is part of a troubling attack on free speech after the killing of Republican activist Charlie Kirk.
“After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like,” Obama wrote on X.
Obama rarely comments on day-to-day news. His post came just days after he spoke in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he said Kirk’s killing should be condemned but stressed that Americans must still be free to challenge Kirk’s views. His social media comments then appeared shortly after Disney announced Kimmel’s suspension.
‘Media companies need to start standing up,’ says Obama
Obama further added, “This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent, and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.” He also shared a New York Times article about the Washington Post firing columnist Karen Attiah, who said she was dismissed over her online posts following Kirk’s death.
In another tweet on X, the former president commented on the freedom of speech getting attacked. “This commentary offers a clear, powerful statement of why freedom of speech is at the heart of democracy and must be defended, whether the speaker is Charlie Kirk or Jimmy Kimmel, MAGA supporters or MAGA opponents,” Obama wrote.
Kimmel faced backlash from White House officials over remarks he made on Monday’s broadcast, which seemed to link Kirk’s suspected killer to the MAGA movement.
Democrats strongly opposed Kimmel’s suspension, which followed a warning from Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr. In a Wednesday podcast with conservative commentator Benny Johnson, Carr had said, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” and had threatened more work for the FCC, if the network did not take action.