Late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday opened up about his temporary suspension from ABC last month over comments he made in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination, conceding that he was surprised to be pulled off the air for words he said were “intentionally and, I think, maliciously mischaracterized.”
In an interview on Bloomberg Screentime, Kimmel said he didn’t realize his comments had stirred so much controversy until the network announced that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” would be “preempted indefinitely.”
“I didn’t think there was a big problem,” he said. “I just saw it as distortion on the part of some of the right-wing media networks, and I aimed to correct it.”
“I have problems, like, all the time,” Kimmel added. “And it’s kind of funny, because sometimes you think, ‘Oh, this is not a problem,’ and then it turns into be a big problem, and then sometimes it goes the other way, where you think, like, ‘Uh-oh, this is gonna be a problem,’ and nobody really notices.”
Kimmel, though, made clear he did not believe he had committed any wrongdoing, telling Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw that his comments were “intentionally and, I think, maliciously mischaracterized.”
