Bill O’Reilly says yanking Jimmy Kimmel off air is about ‘responsibility,’ not ‘censorship’

Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly said on Wednesday that Disney’s ABC indefinitely pulling Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show following his remarks about Charlie Kirk’s assassination was not about “censorship.”

The move came after Nexstar Media Group said Wednesday it had decided to preempt “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from its owned and partner ABC-affiliated stations, calling the comedian’s comments “offensive and insensitive.” O’Reilly said on NewsNation’s “CUOMO” that Kimmel’s Monday monologue suggesting Kirk’s alleged assassin was a member of MAGA was dishonest, irresponsible, and disgraceful.

WATCH:

“What Kimmel did is inexplicable to me. And maybe he’ll come on your show and explain it to you, or my show, the ‘No Spin News.’ He had to know on Monday in his dialogue how raw the country was over this assassination of Charlie Kirk,” O’Reilly told host Chris Cuomo. “He had to know that. And to use his monologue, which is usually comedic, to mislead the entire country by implying that MAGA — Trump supporters — were really behind the murder — to do that, I’m saying you have a battery of writers, you have a producer on your program.

“Did no one red flag you on this? Did no one say anything about this? This isn’t about censorship. This is about responsibility. And as you pointed out correctly, every corporation has a responsibility to make sure the product it is selling is an honest product,” he continued. “And by saying that MAGA might have been responsible for murder, not only is that defamatory, but it’s outrageous.”

Kimmel said during the monologue that MAGA had sunk to new depths, claiming that Republicans had attempted to characterize Kirk’s alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson, as not being affiliated with them whatsoever.

“We had 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,” Kimmel said.

Kimmel also mocked President Donald Trump’s handling of the assassination.

“In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving. On Friday, the White House flew the flags at half-staff, which got some criticism,” he said. “But on a human level, you can see how hard the president is taking this.”

The comedian then played a clip of Trump discussing how he was “holding up” after the murder. As the audience laughed, Kimmel said the president’s response resembled how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.

Officials revealed bullet casings from the rifle allegedly used to kill Kirk contained a series of phrases like “Hey fascist! Catch!” and “bella ciao,” which matches an Italian song name that became a left-wing anthem during World War II. Despite the phrases, liberals speculated online that Robinson was a radical right-winger.

Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox also said on Friday that Robinson “was deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology” and had increasingly become political, perceiving Kirk as “full of hate and spreading hate.”

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr appeared on “The Benny Show” on Wednesday and threatened ABC over Kimmel’s response.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

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