CNN's Jake Tapper defends Jimmy Kimmel after telling ESPN to 'shut down' Aaron Rodgers for joking about Kimmel
After yet another assassination attempt on President Donald Trump, debate over late-night political talk show host Jimmy Kimmel continues.
Kimmel, who was ostensibly hired to host a comedy show, rarely even attempts comedy. Consumed by hatred for Trump and anyone not on the far left, Kimmel has consistently and defiantly argued against anyone claiming that the job of a comic is to do comedy.
That contradiction reared its ugly head again when Kimmel made an objectively poor joke about Melania Trump having the glow of an "expectant widow." Whether the joke was in poor taste or not is a matter of personal opinion, but it was poorly constructed, poorly executed, and, like most of Kimmel’s "material," received little-to-no reaction.
But after another attempt on the president’s life, many pointed to the continued rhetoric from Kimmel and many other figures on the left comparing Trump and his supporters to Nazis or other extremist ideologies. Meanwhile, Kimmel’s defenders have said outcry over a joke is unwarranted and an attack on free speech.
One of Kimmel’s defenders? CNN host Jake Tapper. Except, naturally, in rushing to protect him, Tapper abandoned what he previously said about other jokes…including jokes targeting Kimmel.
In early 2024, NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers made headlines by joking about Kimmel appearing on the Epstein List during an appearance on "The Pat McAfee Show" on ESPN. "There’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, who’s really hoping that list doesn’t come out," Rodgers said.
Kimmel, who oddly was extremely sensitive over a joke, then threatened to sue Rodgers, saying "Keep it up and we’ll debate the facts further in court."
But his hypocrisy pales in comparison to his buddy Jake Tapper. Tapper this week rushed to Kimmel’s defense, saying "Journalism and jokes are not calls for violence. Calls for violence are calls for violence."
He wasn’t done there. Tapper then haughtily defended Kimmel by saying that there’s "zero evidence" the alleged assassin was inspired by Kimmel.
"Now, there is zero evidence — zero evidence that the would-be, alleged assassin heard the joke....is it fair to judge Jimmy Kimmel’s joke in light of what happened at the dinner two nights later?"
He continued, saying there’s a "crusade" against Kimmel and free speech by the Trump administration.
"But this crusade against Kimmel was predictable because the Trump administration’s attempt to use Saturday’s shooting as justification to stop all critical coverage, whether journalistic or comedic, of Donald Trump."
Well, hopefully one day Jake Tapper can meet previous versions of Jake Tapper who said the exact opposite when his party was the one being targeted by "stochastic" violence. Back in 2024, Tapper said Aaron Rodgers was facing "intense, and frankly, well deserved criticism" after his joke targeting "popular late night comedian" Jimmy Kimmel.
"False, defamatory, wildly irresponsible, and not funny," Tapper said. He then repeated that it was "wildly irresponsible," and that there are "lunatics out there who believe this kind of stuff."
Even better, he added, "I mean, Kimmel’s right when he says this is putting his family at risk." Tapper also wondered if ESPN had a "responsibility" to "shut down" this type of conversation. He also angrily wondered if they’d continue to allow this "nitwit" Rodgers on to make dangerous jokes.
That’s just one example of Tapper applying an entirely different standard to jokes depending on the target. There are others.
After Paul Pelosi was attacked in 2022, Tapper also had an entire show about the type of irresponsible jokes and commentary that lead to attacks on prominent figures.
Now though, Tapper has reserved his outrage for those upset that Kimmel made a joke about Melania Trump becoming a widow. Seems extremely hypocritical, no? Especially since Tapper was so upset about Rodgers’ joke being "not funny," and virtually nobody found Kimmel’s "widow" joke funny.
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Why would Tapper be so concerned with how people treat Kimmel?
Oh. That’s why.
Tapper’s clearly friends, or at least, friendly, with Kimmel, and therefore applies a different standard to him than he does to others. Not to mention the different standard he frequently applies to those on the right compared to those on the left. The issue isn’t even whether Kimmel’s joke was incitement or worthy of condemnation or removing him from his show. It’s that there is wildly disparate treatment for jokes from prominent media figures depending on the target.
And it’s just the latest example in hypocrisy when it comes to Trump derangement.