Kelly, who hosts a show on Sirius XM and YouTube, addressed the ongoing dispute Thursday while speaking with comedian and former Kimmel co-host Adam Carolla on The Megyn Kelly Show.
The conversation briefly touched on Kimmel after Carolla mentioned his old colleague by name. The news follows Megyn Kelly ripping apart Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.
The controversy stems from a quip Kimmel made two days before the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, when a gunman opened fire near the event.
During a parody roast, Kimmel said of Melania Trump, “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
Trump has since demanded Kimmel’s termination multiple times.
In his latest post on Thursday, the president wrote, “When is ABC Fake News Network firing seriously unfunny Jimmy Kimmel, who incompetently presides over one of the Lowest-rated shows on Television? People are angry. It better be soon!!!”
Kelly pushed back on that thought.
“It’s very inappropriate,” she said on air. “The president of the United States should not be calling for any private company to fire any employee, especially over free speech.”
Still, Kelly stopped short of defending Kimmel’s original joke.
“I thought the joke was out of line, personally,” she said, noting that Carolla had been more sympathetic toward his former collaborator.
“Even if you are a staunch Trump supporter, you should, but you’re sort of logical in your free speech and you’re sort of pro-American, you still have to kind of go, I don’t know, I would just kind of keep walking on this one,” Carolla said. “Which is not an endorsement of either one of their actions.”
Kelly agreed, but framed her own critique around what she sees as ABC’s inconsistent content standards.
“ABC set the rules for how we engage in cancel culture,” Kelly said.
“They have lots of examples. They’ve got many scalps on their wall. And if we’re gonna go by ABC slash Disney’s standards, then it’s not good news for Jimmy. The standard has to be applied even when the person offended is a Republican. But of course, ABC doesn’t really operate that way.”
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