Jimmy Kimmel Trashes CBS ‘Trump Suck-Ups’ for ‘Cowardly’ Firing of Scott Pelley

Jimmy Kimmel blasted CBS executives as “Trump suck-ups” and “clowns” as he protested the firing of veteran 60 Minutes journalist Scott Pelley, which came after a furious confrontation with his new boss at a meeting.

At a tense staff meeting Monday, Pelley had confronted newly appointed executive producer Nick Bilton over a wave of firings ordered days after CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss installed him in the role.

During the meeting, Pelley reportedly said Weiss had “no qualifications for her job” and was “murdering 60 Minutes,” while telling Bilton he would “never be welcomed” at the program and questioning his qualifications.

Bilton fired Pelley the following day, citing his “misconduct” and “antipathy to the future of the show” in a termination letter.

During Wednesday night’s monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the late-night host took aim at Bilton and defended Pelley’s frustrated outburst.

“Last night, the Trump suck-ups at CBS fired a great and deeply respected journalist, Scott Pelley, from his job at 60 Minutes, because he stood up for truth and integrity at a show that’s been the gold standard for broadcast journalism for 57 years,” Kimmel told viewers.

He continued: “Pelley had had enough after the clowns, who now run that show in the CBS News division, fired reporter Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, along with the executive producer Tanya Simon, and replaced Tanya Simon with a guy who has no experience in TV news. And that was it for Scott Pelley. He said the collapse of values at the top has become untenable, and he let him have it in a staff meeting right to the new guy’s face.”

“So last night, they fired him,” he said.

He then joked that 60 Minutes would be “replaced by new episodes of ‘Reporters Unleashed’” — a swipe at CBS’s recent decision to replace Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show with Byron Allen’s Comics Unleashed.

Kimmel further rounded President Donald Trump’s public celebration of Pelley’s removal, prompting the comedian to quip: “That should make for an interesting situation at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which is apparently back on.”

Watch above via ABC.

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