Barack Obama is calling out what he sees as “dangerous” hypocrisy from the White House.
In a post on X, the 44th president slammed ABC’s decision to “indefinitely” cut Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the FCC Chairman threatened to withdraw ABC’s broadcasting license during an interview.
“After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like,” Obama wrote.
The former president also shared a Vox article titled “Let’s be Clear About What Happened to Jimmy Kimmel.”
The article states that Kimmel, a prominent late-night comedian, was taken off the airwaves “because the Trump administration didn’t like what he had to say—and threatened his employer until they shut him up."
In a separate post, Obama called out media companies for yielding to President Donald Trump and his administration.
“This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent—and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it,” he wrote.
The former president also shared a New York Times article reporting on the firing of Karen Attiah, a longtime columnist at the Washington Post.
Attiah said last week that the Jeff Bezos-owned paper fired her over posts she made in the aftermath of the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
The Daily Beast has reached out to representatives of Obama for comment.
During an interview with conservative YouTuber Benny Johnson, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr claimed Kimmel intentionally spread misinformation about Kirk’s shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, by playing into a “narrative” that Robinson was a “MAGA or Republican motivated person.”
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
That led to Nexstar, which owns ABC affiliate stations across the U.S., deciding to pull Kimmel’s show. The president of the company’s broadcast division, Andrew Alford, called the talk show host’s comments “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse.”
Kimmel’s comments, which come from Monday night’s monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, do not feature Kimmel “explicitly” characterizing Robinson as MAGA or Republican.
Kimmel actually says, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
His Monday night monologue has since racked up 3.7 million views on Youtube as of Thursday morning.
Trump turned to social media shortly after the announcement to celebrate Kimmel’s show being paused, calling it “Great News for America.”
“Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done,” Trump wrote. “Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible.”
Other key MAGA figures rejoiced in ABC’s decision, with the Official White House Rapid Response posting on X, “They’re doing their viewers a favor. Jimmy is a sick freak!”
Obama, for his part, has escalated his attacks on the Trump administration in recent months.
In August, he issued a chilling warning on X about what he called the “dangerous trend” of the federalization and militarization of local and state law enforcement since Trump’s return to office in January.
That followed a rare public rebuke in July, in which Obama condemned the “constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House.”
