Melania Trump blasts Jimmy Kimmel for 'hateful and violent rhetoric', calls him 'coward'

First Lady Melania Trump launched a scathing attack on popular talk show host Jimmy Kimmel on Monday, accusing him of using his platform to "divide the country." Ahead of the White House Correspondents' Dinner, Kimmel had his own iteration of the event on Jimmy Kimmel Live, in which he said that Melania looked like an "expectant widow." After the incidents at the official dinner, the First Lady called Kimmel a "coward" and urged the ABC Network to take action.

"His monologue about my family isn't comedy," she wrote, claiming that the talk show host's words were "corrosive" and that it deepened the "political sickness within America." Melania also claimed that Kimmel should not be allowed to "enter our homes each evening to spread hate." There has not been a response from Kimmel or the ABC Network at the time of writing this article. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has come to his wife's aid.

Taking to Truth Social, the President of the United States said that Kimmel was "in no way funny as attested to by his terrible Television Ratings." The segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live could not have aired at a worse time due to the shooting incident at the Correspondents' Dinner. As a result, several people have raised their voices against the sketch, which the President was thankful for.

"I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel's despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said; this is something far beyond the pale," he wrote. The President then claimed that the talk show host should be fired by ABC and Disney. It is not just the Trump family that is going after Kimmel, but the administration as well.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized the late-night host in a press briefing on Monday. As she spoke about the shooting incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, she expressed disdain for Kimmel's comments. "Who in their right mind says a wife would be glowing over the potential murder of her beloved husband?" she asked. "This kind of rhetoric about the President, the First Lady, and their supporters is deranged and unbelievable that the American people are consuming it."

Leavitt was then asked by a reporter about what the administration could do to tone down the rhetoric against President Trump. "We need to recommit ourselves as a country to toning down the rhetoric and to unifying around what makes our country great," she said. She claimed that "mentally disturbed individuals" across the country were listening to the "crazed rhetoric" against President Trump, and that it inspired them to "do crazy things." Leavitt, who will soon be on maternity leave, also claimed that Democrats had pitched Trump as an "existential threat to democracy" to voters. "They compare him to Hitler. These are despicable statements that the American people have been consuming for years, and so many mentally perturbed individuals are led to believe these words are true, and then are inspired to act on them," she said.