'Nonsense!' Comedian nearly loses his cool with CNN anchor as Kimmel chat gets tense
Comedian Pete Dominick clashed furiously with CNN's Boris Sanchez on Thursday, disputing the narrative that late-night talk shows like the now-suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live are losing relevance because of their liberal politics.
Kimmel's show, which recently criticized Trump and his followers for politically exploiting the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, is on hold indefinitely after ABC's parent company Disney faced pressure both President Donald Trump's FCC and two of ABC's biggest affiliate station owners — the far-right Sinclair Broadcast Group, and Nexstar, which is seeking merger approval from the Trump administration.
"Weneed to protect the FirstAmendment," said Dominick, who has worked closely with Stephen Colbert, another late-night comedian who was canceled around the same time Trump publicly attacked him. "And this is the mostimportant point. It's a crucible point. It's an inflectionpoint. We all need to stand up."
"Beyond your call to answer thepolitical moment, I wonder whatyou make of the argument thatsome of what is presented onlate-night TV, not just onKimmel's show, but on othershows, is out of touch withMiddle America and doesn'treflect their views and thatsome folks were actuallyoffended by what Kimmel wassaying," said Sanchez.
"No. Nonsense," said Dominick. "I don'tknow what you think Middle America is. Could you expand onwhat Middle America is? Who isthat?"
"Folks that were not pleasedwith what Kimmel was saying?" said Sanchez. "Imean, there's a big part of thepopulation that doesn't agreewith his politics. Theadministration has pointed tothat as part of the reason whypeople have tuned away fromoutlets like Jimmy Kimmel Liveand have tuned into other outlets that more closelyreflect their views. You've seen the ratingswhen it comes to other networks,more conservative networks. Onlate night, they're going up."
"First of all, you're talking — you're talkingabout Fox News, Greg Gutfeldshow. It's on at 10," said Dominick. "You'retalking not about the political moment. This is justmedia. There's a billionchannels. The reason why fewerpeople are watching late-nightis because you can watch TikTokall day, that's why. It hasnothing to do with that, they'renot, they're not meeting whatpeople want or they're notappeasing Middle America. Pleasesave that."
"You're talking aboutMAGA," he added. "You're talking aboutoverwhelmingly white people inAmerica that vote for DonaldTrump. The vast majority ofyoung people, the vast majorityof people of color, the vastmajority of Americans loveStephen Colbert, they love JonStewart, they love Jimmy Kimmel.And they're going to continueloving comedians and others whospeak out. They — all these guysare making have millions andmillions of viewers way more than these other outlets thatyou're necessarily mentioning.So I don't buy any of thatnonsense, and I don't thinkit's true. I don't think it's [borne] out by the facts either."
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