Joe Scarborough Hails Bipartisan Stand with Jimmy Kimmel: ‘This Is Big Government vs. The People’
Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough hailed the bipartisan stand with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel as he blasted the fallout that resulted in the short-lived suspension as a case of “Big Government versus The People.”
Kimmel was suspended by ABC last week following backlash to a joke about MAGA’s reaction to the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The comments were then highlighted by Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr on a podcast, who urged affiliate networks to “step up” and triggered a pile-on by conglomerates before ABC suspended Kimmel.
In his return to the air, the host led a tearful monologue clarifying his compassion for Kirk and his family in the wake of the tragedy before thanking and naming conservatives, from Ben Shapiro to Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who had stood by and spoke up for him after his suspension.
After rolling back a significant block of the monologue, Scarborough began Wednesday’s Morning Joe by praising Kimmel in the opener:
I love what he said about Erica Kirk there. And I also loved, really loved him talking about Republicans that he disagreed with on almost every issue and it was framed perfectly.
The MSNBC host continued to hammer home the importance of Republicans standing up for Kimmel:
What this last week has shown is – and I hope some other Republicans can start thinking this way – this is not Republican against Democrat in so many of these cases. It’s not left wing against right wing. It’s none of those things. This is Big Government versus The People. This is a centralized state versus individual rights.
And there have been times, and we’ve talked about it over the past decade, where the left has seemed to not care as much about that. There have been times that the right has not seemed to care as much about that. But in this case, the left and the right came together.
A lot of them did, said, ‘Wait a second, we can object to this speech, but government stay away from what we watch. It’s none of your business. And especially if it’s political speech, which is the most sacred protected speech in the First Amendment.
Watch above via MSNBC.
