Hollywood star and Democratic activist George Clooney stepped up to defend late-night host Jimmy Kimmel after President Donald Trump called for the comedian to be fired by ABC over a White House Correspondents’ Dinner joke mocking First Lady Melania Trump.

The president accused Kimmel of making a “despicable call to violence” and demanded he be fired “immediately” following a skit on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in which the host, pretending to host the dinner, remarked that Melania Trump had the glow of an “expectant widow.”

The remark aired just before the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which was later cancelled after a security breach involving a live shooter. It drew immediate backlash and a response from the First Lady and the president, who both called for the network to fire the comedian.

Speaking to Variety at the Chaplin Award Gala in New York on Monday, Clooney dismissed the backlash and drew a direct comparison to remarks by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who told Fox News ahead of the Correspondents’ Dinner that “there will be some shots fired tonight in the room,” a line widely understood as a reference to the traditional roasting at the event.

“Jimmy’s a comedian, and I would argue that Karoline Leavitt didn’t mean shots should be fired, right?” Clooney said. “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.”

He continued, “I always have faith in the press. I always believe in it. I’m the son of a journalist, you know? I also think that you’re not supposed to have a good relationship with government. You’re supposed to be questioning them.”

“The people that I support – the Democrats – so, I’m a Democrat. I make no apologies for it. The people that I support – Bill Clinton, Barack Obama – they didn’t enjoy getting chased down by reporters,” Clooney added. “People in power don’t like to have to answer all the questions in the world. That’s fair. They shouldn’t enjoy it. And the reporters should make sure that they hold people’s feet to the fire. That’s the rules. That’s what [Thomas] Jefferson talked about in 1787. We need to be able to have a free and fair press.”

Clooney’s comments came just before Kimmel aired his own response to the backlash by defending his joke as a “pretend roast,” while saying he agreed in rejecting “hateful and violent rhetoric.” He also acknowledged the “traumatic” events on Saturday and urged the First Lady to “have a conversation with your husband about it.”

Watch above via X.

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