Fox’s Brian Kilmeade Flat-Out Rebuts Trump Rants on Jimmy Kimmel Being ‘Fired’ for ‘Lack of Talent’

Fox News host Brian Kilmeade flatly contradicted President Donald Trump’s rants claiming ousted late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was “fired” due to a “lack of talent.”

During a press conference in London and an Air Force One gaggle on Thursday, Trump repeatedly claimed that Kimmel “was fired for lack of talent” and because he “had no talent.”

Kimmel wasn’t fired, and the reasons given for his show’s suspension have not included any notation regarding “talent” or ratings.

On Thursday night’s edition of Fox News Channel’s The Ingraham Angle, guest host Kilmeade opened the show with a commentary about Kimmel’s suspension under intimidation from  Brendan Carr, Trump’s hand-picked FCC commissioner.

While the thrust of the commentary was in defense of the suspension, Kilmeade made no bones about acknowledging Kimmel’s talent:

BRIAN KILMEADE: There are reports from the Daily Mail that Jimmy Kimmel is “absolutely effing livid” and is considering going on lame duck late night show, Stephen Colbert’s show, for a guest slot so they can collectively perhaps whine about the situations they find themselves in.

Now, Bloomberg is just reporting now that Disney executives are discussing the future of the show with Kimmel himself. So all this might even work out. The president, by the way, was asked overseas. He had nothing to do with this, but he was asked about it. And he thought, too, he had a thing or two to say about Kimmel and his future.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else, and he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk.

And Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person. He had very bad ratings, and they should have fired him a long time ago. So you know, you can call that free speech or not.

He was fired for lack of talent.

BRIAN KILMEADE: Well, he’s a talented guy, even if that was not a good joke, and maybe he’s very anti-Trump.

Meanwhile, Trump is probably on to something. Since 2015, when it comes to ratings, which is the year that Donald Trump stepped into the political arena, Jimmy Kimmel has just cut his audience in half.

And it’s far worse, he lost 70% of the coveted key demo, young people, 25 to 54.

So when you’re on thin ice with your boss and not performing well, it’s probably not a good idea to tick them off and spout garbage about a political assassination. It’s not fascism, it’s not the Gestapo taking out a late-night host for what he said. It’s old-fashioned accountability.

Watch above via Fox News Channel’s The Ingraham Angle.