{"id":241003,"date":"2025-09-20T08:24:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T08:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/241003\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T08:24:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T08:24:10","slug":"bill-maher-defends-kimmel-while-reflecting-on-his-9-11-abc-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/241003\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Maher Defends Kimmel While Reflecting on His 9\/11 ABC Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBill Maher<\/a> is sharing his opinion on ABC\u2019s decision to indefinitely preempt<\/a> Jimmy Kimmel<\/a> Live!, with his perspective as a fellow late night host who endured his own share of controversy<\/a> while on air with the same network. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Real Time host wasted no time addressing the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s show at the top of his monologue, where he started, \u201cWell, I guess you all heard Jimmy Kimmel, my friend, my compatriot, he\u2019s canned by ABC for comments he made about Charlie Kirk\u2019s assassin.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe day right after [he made the comments], the head of the FCC said he\u2019s gonna revoke ABC\u2019s license,\u201d Maher added. \u201cLet me just tell you something: I am not intimidated by the FCC. And if President Trump is watching, I have one thing to say to you \u2014 have you lost weight?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe then addressed his own controversy that arose in 2001 while hosting ABC\u2019s Politically Incorrect. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was 24 years to the day that I made comments on ABC that got me canceled from that network, and Jimmy Kimmel took my slot at Politically Incorrect. Oh yes, I got canceled before cancel even had a culture,\u201d he said. \u201cThis s*** ain\u2019t new. It\u2019s worse, we\u2019ll get to that, but you know, ABC, they are steady. ABC stands for \u2018Always Be Caving.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMaher defended Kimmel, noting, \u201cJimmy, pal, I am with you, I support you, and on the bright side, you don\u2019t have to pretend anymore that you like Disneyland.\u201d Later in his monologue, he showed him even more support, further referencing the end of his tenure with ABC.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJimmy, let me just say, you did a great, funny show for two decades,\u201d Maher said. \u201cYou should be proud of that. If this firing goes for you the way it did for me, you\u2019ll get 23 years on a better network.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMaher faced a wave of backlash 24 years ago when he made remarks about the 9\/11 hijackers under a week after the attacks occurred on an episode of ABC\u2019s Politically Incorrect. The series was one of the first late now shows to return to air following the terrorist attacks, as the episode arrived on Sept. 17, 2001.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere, conservative commentator Dinesh D\u2019Souza argued against the notion that the hijackers were \u201ccowards,\u201d stating, \u201cNot true. Look at what they did. First of all, you have a whole bunch of guys who are willing to give their life. None of them backed out. All of them slammed themselves into pieces of concrete. These are warriors. And we have to realize that the principles of our way of life are in conflict with people in the world. And so \u2014\u00a0I mean, I\u2019m all for understanding the sociological causes of this but we should not blame the victim. Americans shouldn\u2019t blame themselves because other people want to bomb them.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tMaher responded, \u201cBut also, we should \u2014 we have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That\u2019s cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it\u2019s not cowardly.\u201d Following his remarks, he issued an apology and ABC released a statement in support of Politically Incorrect.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe series was not pulled from air, though the show was canceled after the 01-02 season. A few months after the end of Politically Incorrect, ABC notably announced a new late night show with Kimmel.<\/p>\n

\n\tMaher sat down with Joe Manchin and\u00a0Alex Wagner during the panel segment of the Friday episode of Real Time, where he noted a past X post<\/a> made my Charlie Kirk discussing free speech in the United States.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHere\u2019s the ultimate irony, though. Charlie Kirk said, \u2018Hate speech does not exist legally in America.\u2019 By the way, I\u2019ve always been on the same page,\u201d he started, before continuing to read Kirk\u2019s post. \u201c\u2018Hate speech does not exist legally in America,\u2019 says Charlie Kirk. \u2018There\u2019s ugly speech. There\u2019s gross speech. There\u2019s evil speech. And all of it is protected by the First Amendment. Keep America free.\u2019 Could you guys at least honor the person you\u2019re insisting that we honor by honoring his words?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier in his monologue, Maher noted that he didn\u2019t agree with Kimmel\u2019s comments, but noted \u201che shouldn\u2019t lose his job for it.\u201d He also addressed the silence from The View panel<\/a> on the matter. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI gotta say, and I\u2019m friendly with the ladies on The View, but they didn\u2019t say anything about [Kimmel\u2019s suspension] this week. Nothing,\u201d he said. \u201cYou know, \u2019cause it\u2019s never been their thing to weigh in on the issues. It\u2019s just an upbeat party show, that\u2019s why they hired people named Joy and Sunny and Whoopi.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMaher continued, \u201cGirls, go out strong, OK? It won\u2019t kill you. I promise it\u2019s happened to me, and I may go out after this show. We don\u2019t know.\u201d In tune with the heavy news cycle, he, too, tackled Trump\u2019s lawsuit against The New York Times<\/a> that was dismissed on Friday. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNow, Trump is going after The New York Times. He sued them for $15 billion. He said they\u2019re a \u2018mouthpiece of the Democratic Party.\u2019 You know what, Don? They are. You\u2019re right, and that\u2019s their right to be that,\u201d he said. \u201cLike there\u2019s not a thousand people on the right who are your mouthpiece. Okay, that\u2019s how we work in this country.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tMaher\u2019s take on the preemption of Jimmy Kimmel Live! comes a day after many late night TV hosts \u2014 including Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon<\/a> and Seth Meyers<\/a> \u2014 voiced their disapproval on the indefinite suspension. On Thursday night, most of the late night shows aired their first taped episode since ABC revealed their decision,\u00a0where Colbert defended Kimmel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tJimmy Kimmel Live!\u00a0was \u201cpre-empted indefinitely\u201d by ABC on Wednesday shortly after Nexstar released a statement noting they would not air the planned episode and would preempt the long-running talk show for the foreseeable future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe backlash stemmed from Kimmel\u2019s remarks about Tyler Robinson, the alleged shooter of Charlie Kirk. \u201cWe hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,\u201d Kimmel said.<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing Kimmel\u2019s comments during his monologue, Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr went on a podcast on Wednesday where he publicly\u00a0spoke out against Kimmel<\/a>\u00a0and urged affiliates to \u201cpush back\u201d on ABC. Later in the day, it was announced that Kimmel was suspended. <\/p>\n

\n\tA source told\u00a0The Hollywood Reporter\u00a0Kimmel was planning to address the backlash on Wednesday night\u2019s show, which was canceled. He prepared to explain what he said and how it was taken out of context. The source added that Kimmel did not intend to apologize. <\/p>\n

\n\tDavid Letterman voiced his opinion<\/a>\u00a0on the suspension on Thursday during a panel at the Atlantic Festival. \u201cI feel bad about this because we all see where this is going, correct? It\u2019s managed media. And it\u2019s no good. It\u2019s silly. It\u2019s ridiculous,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t go around firing somebody because you\u2019re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian criminal administration in the Oval Office. That\u2019s just not how this works.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bill Maher is sharing his opinion on ABC\u2019s decision to indefinitely preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live!, with his perspective…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":241004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4087,171,11171,4088,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-241003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-bill-maher","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-jimmy-kimmel","11":"tag-real-time-with-bill-maher","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115235668901630770","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}