Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel returned to Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday night after a brief suspension for controversial remarks he made in the aftermath of the assassination of conservative, Republican activist Charlie Kirk.
In his opening monologue, Kimmel touched on a variety of subjects, speaking about his comments that triggered the controversy, a clarification of what he meant to say, the importance of the values of free speech, and criticisms of President Donald Trump and Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. However, he also spoke about Kirk’s widow, Erika, praising her decision to forgive the assassin who killed her husband. Kimmel said he was moved by those words and proclaimed that she is someone “we should follow.”
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“There was a moment over the weekend, a very beautiful moment, I don’t know if you saw this,” Kimmel said. “On Sunday, Erika Kirk forgave the man who shot her husband. She forgave him. That is an example we should follow,” he said as his voice cracked and eyes welled up.
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Kimmel’s audience applauded his comments about Kirk’s wife.
“If you believe in the teachings of Jesus, as I do, there it was,” Kimmel added. “That’s it. A selfless act of grace, forgiveness from a grieving widow, and it touched me deeply. It touches many, and if there’s anything we should take from this tragedy and to carry forward, I hope it can be that, not this.”
Kimmel made the comments slightly over 17 minutes into his opening monologue, shortly before the program’s first commercial break.
While much of Kimmel’s monologue included partisan attacks on Trump and his administration, his comments about Erika Kirk appeared genuine and heartfelt. They also came after Kimmel provided a “clarification” of his original controversial comments that landed him in hot water with network executives. He did not apologize for those comments, but said he understood why people might be upset and that he might have felt and reacted similarly if the situation were reversed.
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“I do want to make something clear because it’s important to me as a human,” Kimmel said. “And that is, it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. I don’t think there’s anything funny about it. I posted a message on Instagram on the day he was killed, sending love to his family and asking for compassion, and I meant it, and I still do.”
“Nor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what it was obviously a deeply disturbed individual,” Kimmel added. “That was really the opposite of the point I was trying to make. But I understand that to some, that felt either ill-timed or unclear, or maybe both. And for those that think I did point a finger, I get why you’re upset. If the situation was reversed, there’s a good chance I’d have felt the same way.”