George Clooney came to Jimmy Kimmel’s defense as the talk show host’s feud with President Donald Trump reached a new level.
“Jimmy’s a comedian, and I would argue that [press secretary] Karoline Leavitt didn’t mean shots should be fired,” Clooney, 64, said while attending the 51st Chaplin Award Gala on Monday, April 27. “She was making a joke. Fair enough. You look at that side and go, ’Well, jokes are jokes.’ But the rhetoric is a little dangerous. And we’ve seen it a lot lately.”
The actor, who was honored at the event in New York City, was referring to Leavitt’s now-viral remark from before the White House Correspondent’s Association Dinner on Saturday, April 25.
Leavitt, 28, told Fox News on Saturday that “there will be some shots fired tonight in the room,” seemingly alluding to the jokes that would be made throughout the evening. Her comment took on new meaning after gunshots were actually fired at the event in Washington, D.C. (Alleged shooter Cole Tomas Allen is facing three criminal charges, including an assassination attempt against Trump.)
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Clooney noted on Monday that comments like Leavitt’s “can be toned down” before seemingly discussing the back and forth between Trump and Kimmel.
“When one side is calling anyone they disagree with traitors to the country — which is a charge that’s punishable by death — just because they don’t agree with someone, I think the rhetoric is a little too heated,” Clooney said.
During his speech on Monday, Clooney further addressed the shooting at the White House Correspondent’s Association Dinner.
“I can’t be here on a night like tonight and just ignore everything that’s going on in the world,” Clooney said, in part. “I disagree with everything that this administration stands for, but there’s no place for the kind of violence we saw two nights ago in Washington, D.C.”
Kimmel, 58, made headlines after his monologue during the Thursday, April 23 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! The 10-minute roast featured a joke in which Kimmel said that Melania Trump has a “glow like an expectant widow.”
Both Melania and President Trump spoke out in response to the joke following the shooting. While Melania called it “hateful and violent rhetoric” that “is intended to divide our country,” her husband called to have Kimmel fired.
Kimmel clarified during Monday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! monologue that he was “obviously” joking.
“It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am. It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination, and they know that,” he said. “I’ve been very vocal for many years, speaking out against gun violence, but I understand that the first lady had a stressful experience over the weekend, and probably every weekend is pretty stressful in that house.”
