Clooney defends Kimmel: ‘Jokes are jokes’

George Clooney is defending Jimmy Kimmel after President Trump and Melania Trump called for the late-night show host’s firing over a joke he made ahead of the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner about the first lady looking like an “expectant widow.”

“Jimmy’s a comedian,” the “Good Night, and Good Luck” star told Variety at the Chaplin Award Gala in New York on Monday.

“I look at that side and go ‘Jokes are jokes,’ but the rhetoric I think is a little dangerous and we’ve seen it a lot lately,” Clooney said.

In a sketch on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” that aired two days before the WHCA dinner, Kimmel said Melania Trump had the “glow” of “an expectant widow.”

A suspected shooter at the correspondents’ dinner was later charged with attempting to assassinate President Trump, who was attending the annual event for the first time as president on Saturday at the Washington Hilton hotel. 

Trump on Monday described Kimmel’s remark as a “despicable call to violence,” saying the comedian should be fired by Disney, ABC’s parent........

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