Stephen A. Smith Goes After His Disney Colleague Kimmel: ‘Wasn’t Anything Funny’ About Kirk Comments

On his SiriusXM show Straight Shooter, Stephen A. Smith went after his Disney colleague Jimmy Kimmel over the Charlie Kirk controversy.

Kimmel was suspended on Wednesday from his ABC late-night show for comments he made after the conservative activist’s killing. Disney is the parent company of ABC, as well as ESPN, which Smith has called home since 2003.

“The only thing that I would say as it pertains to Jimmy Kimmel is, where was the joke?” Smith said. “Because you’re a late-night host — and obviously that has a comedic attachment to it. Where was the joke? Obviously, it wasn’t anything funny about that.”

During his opening monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Monday, the late-night host began:

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

Kimmel then cut to a clip of Donald Trump being asked about how he was doing following Kirk’s assassination, during which Trump pivoted to talking about the building of the new White House ballroom.

“Yes, he’s at the fourth stage of grief: construction. Demolition, construction. This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend; this is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish, OK?” Kimmel said.

Rolling Stone reported Thursday that “several execs believe that Kimmel said nothing over the line,” but the fear of the Trump administration’s retaliation was enough to suspend Kimmel.

One of Smith’s guests for his debut show was Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R), who thanked Smith for his comforting words after the Kirk’s assassination.

On his podcast, the day after Kirk’s death, Smith said, “Shame on you!” to anyone celebrating the murder.

Watch Stephen A. Smith’s debut show on SiriusXM via YouTube.