CNN Anchor Fact-Checks Scott Jennings on Charlie Kirk Rant That Got Jimmy Kimmel Dumped

CNN anchor John Berman did a quick fact-check to rebut GOP analyst Scott Jennings over the Charlie Kirk comments that got late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s show suspended.

The media world was shaken Wednesday night by the news that ABC has suspended Kimmel’s show “indefinitely,” just hours after he was targeted by Brendan Carr, President Donald Trump’s hand-picked FCC commissioner.

Kimmel was singled out for a comment he made during a monologue on Monday’s edition of Jimmy Kimmel Live!:

JIMMY KIMMEL: We 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.

On Thursday’s edition of CNN News Central, Berman hosted Jennings and Democratic analyst Bakari Sellers to discuss the suspension.

Berman was quick with a rejoinder when Jennings asked, “Where is the joke?” and accused Kimmel of “telling the American people a bunch of lies.”

The anchor explained the setup Kimmel was delivering, and read the comments aloud when Jennings claimed Kimmel “Lie(d) about the shooter”:

SCOTT JENNINGS: As Bakari mentioned and you guys reading the tweets about jokes and satire. Where’s the joke?

I mean, Jimmy Kimmel went on TV the other night. It wasn’t telling any jokes. He was telling the American people a bunch of lies.

I’m not certain it was in the public interest or the public good to do so. His show had largely become a political propaganda show. It’s not a comedy show.

And so businesses that put things on the air have to make decisions about content all the time. And in this particular case, my view is the content had gotten to the point where If the people who have to air it were hearing from their, I’m sure, advertisers and their consumers, there are consequences to that sort of thing.

JOHN BERMAN: The joke came. It was a wind-up to a joke about President Trump’s reaction, commenting on the construction that was going on when he was asked about Charlie Kirk. That was the actual joke in that case.

SCOTT JENNINGS: Was it a joke to lie about the shooter?

JOHN BERMAN: What he said, let me just say, just let me read out loud what he said about this. He said, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize the kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”.

So if you read that, literally, he was talking about the reaction to the killing right there.

Watch above via CNN News Central.