CNN host cuts off conservative claiming Kimmel joke was a lie: 'Just read it out loud'

CNN's John Berman pushed back on a conservative guest's defense of ABC caving to pressure from President Donald Trump and pulling late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel off the air.

The president has been threatening to revoke broadcast licenses for the network's affiliates for months over Kimmel, who mocked him on a nightly basis, and parent company Disney yanked him indefinitely after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr criticized his coverage of Charlie Kirk's assassination, which conservative pundit Scott Jennings told "CNN News Central" was justified.

"Where's thejoke?" Jennings said. "I mean, Jimmy Kimmel wenton TV the other night, hewasn't telling any jokes. He was telling the American peoplea bunch of lies. I'm notcertain it was in the publicinterest or the public good tobe telling the American peoplea bunch of lies. I'm notcertain it was in the publicinterest or the public good todo so. His show had largely become a propaganda show, it's not a comedy show, and so businesses that putthings on the air have to makedecisions about content all the time, and in this particularcase, my view is the content hadgotten to the point where thepeople who have to air it werehearing from their, I'm sure,advertisers and their consumers.There are consequences to thatsort of thing."

Berman pointed out that Kimmel showed a video clip of the president's reaction to a question about Kirk's fatal shooting, to which he replied with a rambling discourse on the construction of a White House ballroom.

"The joke came, I mean, it wasa windup to a joke about President Trump's reaction, commenting on the constructionthat was going on when he was asked about Charlie Kirk," Berman said. "That was the actual joke."

Trump and his conservative allies characterized the shooter as left-wing before a suspect was identified and proposed measures to crack down on their political enemies before and after his arrest, but Kimmel suggested the shooter was part of the "MAGA gang."

"Was it a joke to lie about the shooter?" Jennings said.

Berman read Kimmel's quote to say the joke was a bit more nuanced than Jennings and the Trump administration had characterized it.

"What he said, let me just say, I'm just going to read it out loud what he said about this," Berman said. "He said, 'Wehad some new lows over theweekend with the MAGA gangdesperately trying tocharacterize the kid whomurdered Charlie Kirk asanything other than one of them,and doing everything they can toscore political points from it.'So if you read that literally,he was talking about thereaction to the killing rightthere."

Jennings attempted to protest, but Berman turned to panelist Bakari Sellers to ask about Kamala Harris revealing that her first choice for running mate was Pete Buttigieg, and Jennings gamely engaged in that topic by criticizing vice presidential nominee Tim Walz.

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