George Clooney defended late-night host Jimmy Kimmel Monday night, drawing a parallel between Kimmel’s joke about first lady Melania Trump and a remark by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, saying both sides should be held to the same standard on political rhetoric.
Speaking at the 51st Chaplin Award Gala in New York, where he was being honored for his contributions to cinema, Mr. Clooney told Variety that Mr. Kimmel’s controversial line about the first lady should be viewed in the same light as Ms. Leavitt’s pre-dinner quip that “there will be some shots fired tonight in the room” — a reference to the traditional roasting at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
“Jimmy’s a comedian, and I would argue that Karoline Leavitt didn’t mean shots should be fired,” Mr. Clooney told Variety. “She was making a joke. Fair enough. You look at that side and go, ’Well, jokes are jokes.’ But the rhetoric is a little dangerous. And we’ve seen it a lot lately.”
The backlash stems from a sketch that aired on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” two days before the correspondents’ dinner, in which Mr. Kimmel said Ms. Trump had the “glow” of “an expectant widow.” A suspected shooter at the dinner was later charged with attempting to assassinate President Trump, who was attending the annual event for the first time as president Saturday at the Washington Hilton Hotel.
Mr. Trump described Mr. Kimmel’s remark on Monday as a “despicable call to violence,” saying the comedian should be fired by Disney, ABC’s parent company. Ms. Trump posted on social media that Mr. Kimmel’s comments were “hateful and violent rhetoric” that were “intended to divide our country.”
Mr. Kimmel defended the joke on his show Monday, saying it “was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80, and she’s younger than I am. It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination — and they know that.”
Mr. Clooney, meanwhile, indicated his concern was less with either joke specifically and more with the broader tenor of political speech.
“When one side is calling anyone they disagree with traitors to the country, which is a charge that’s punishable by death, just because they don’t agree with someone, I think the rhetoric is a little too heated,” Mr. Clooney said.
Mr. Clooney also addressed Saturday’s shooting directly from the Gala stage.
“I can’t be here on a night like tonight and just ignore everything that’s going on in the world,” he said. “I disagree with everything that this administration stands for, but there’s no place for the kind of violence we saw two nights ago in Washington, D.C.”
Mr. Clooney, whose father was a journalist, also used the occasion to defend press freedom, saying the role of reporters is to question those in power.
“People in power don’t like to have to answer all the questions in the world. That’s fair. They shouldn’t enjoy it. And the reporters should make sure that they hold people’s feet to the fire. That’s the rules,” he said.
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