Bess Kalb, a former writer for Jimmy Kimmel Live!, criticized President Donald Trump during a hearing on Capitol Hill called “Silencing Dissent: The First Amendment Under Attack,” saying the president is the program's "best and worst audience" with "inexplicably bruised" and "very thin" skin.
Kalb's appearance is no accident given how much Jimmy Kimmel Live! has offended Trump's sensibilities over the years—and how he tried to pull it off the air last year.
In September, ABC announced it would end its suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! just a week after Trump pushed to get Kimmel off the air following comments Kimmel made about the assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk. ABC had had internal discussions with Disney, which saw a wave of subscriber cancellations in the wake of Kimmel's suspension.
When Kimmel returned, he called out the government interference that led to his suspension, saying that Trump "celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can’t take a joke" and is now "openly rooting for NBC to fire Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers and the hundreds of Americans who work for their shows who don’t make millions of dollars.”
Kalb, who wrote for Kimmel’s show for eight years until 2020, explained why she believes Trump is the show's "best and worst audience" while mocking him for his bruised hand that has attracted the attention of photographers for months:
“He is our best audience, because unlike most Americans, he watches late-night television. He cares about what the network men in suits say about him.”
“He is our worst audience, because his inexplicably bruised skin is very, very thin. He complained about our jokes frequently. Often in real time, on his own social media site [Truth Social] he invented so that nobody could make fun of him on it.”
Kalb noted that although Trump has portrayed himself as a champion of free expression, his second term has featured efforts to settle scores with critics—highlighted by his public celebration of Stephen Colbert’s show not being renewed by CBS and the removal of Kimmel from the air.
Referencing the demolition of the White House's East Wing to make way for a 90,000-square foot ballroom, she said:
“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was bulldozed like it was the East Wing of the White House." ...
“I want to be fair. The Trump administration denies responsibility for these cancellations, much as the mafia is continuously surprised that so many people end up in the East River with cement blocks on their feet.”
She argued that shutting down a late-night show doesn’t simply remove a major venue for “speaking truth to power,” but it also weakens programming that connects with broad and diverse audiences:
“I believe late-night hosts, like Colbert and Kimmel, are vital satirists, who shape how millions of Americans absorb the day’s news."
"At 11:30 every weeknight, millions of people all over the country, just before their melatonin gummies hit, listen to what these comedians have to say about what happened in America that day. And under any administration, they are powerful voices of criticism and dissent.”
While she nonetheless joked that "let’s be clear, they’re also doing interviews with The Bachelorette," she stressed that hosts like Colbert and Kimmel used their platforms to “make tangible, incremental, ideological change through satire dressed up in a suit.”
Those who stay up to watch these programs, she observed, “will hear the news reflected back to them, through a lens that is openly critical of the government. No matter who is in the Oval Office. And that can shape an electorate’s opinion.”
And in between the quips, she explained exactly why Trump's attacks against late-night hosts are in fact dangerous:
“They’re about controlling criticism of the administration and its corporate bedfellows. It is the state using its power to shape what is profitable to say. And we’ve learned nothing if not this: the bottom line comes first, even before the First Amendment.”
You can hear what Kalb said in the video below.
Many applauded her remarks.
Meanwhile, Kimmel returned to new episodes Monday after a week off and devoted almost his entire 16-minute monologue to reacting to news about Trump that broke while he was away—including renewed attacks from the president.
Reading from a campaign fundraising email accusing him of being “back at it again,” Kimmel joked that he had actually been at home doing nothing at all.
Kimmel, referring to the email, said "the subject line was, ‘DJT: Get Trump out of your mouth’ — which somehow is not a line from the Trump-Epstein files."
