Actress Jane Fonda, known to many as “Hanoi Jane” because of her treasonous antics during the Vietnam War, went berserk and denounced the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for its decision to investigate ABC and review ABC’s broadcasting license after its late-night host, Jimmy Kimmel, joked about President Trump dying and Melania being an “expectant widow”.
As background, Jimmy Kimmel made the horrific “joke” on a show that was aired just days before there was yet another assassination attempt against the president, with the show host pretending Melania and Barron Trump were in the studio and saying, “Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
President Trump, angrily posting about the matter on Truth Social, said, “Wow, Jimmy Kimmel, who is in no way funny as attested to by his terrible Television Ratings, made a statement on his Show that is really shocking. He showed a fake video of the First Lady, Melania, and our son, Barron, like they were actually sitting in his studio, listening to him speak, which they weren’t, and never would be.”
The president then added, “A day later a lunatic tried entering the ballroom of the White House Correspondents Dinner, loaded up with a shotgun, handgun, and many knives. He was there for a very obvious and sinister reason. I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
Since then, the FCC has started threatening, indirectly, ABC. Particularly, Brendan Carr’s FCC has issued an order requiring Disney’s ABC-owned local stations to apply for early renewal of their broadcast licenses, a clear threat that such licenses might not be renewed.
Watch the horrible Kimmel segment here:
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It was over that matter that Fonda freaked out. “FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s latest order to review the broadcast license of all ABC stations is a naked attempt to weaponize government power against dissent,” Hanoi Jane said in a statement about the issue to Variety, the leftist entertainment rag.
“What we are seeing fits a deliberate and deeply troubling pattern of authoritarian regimes throughout history — and it should alarm anyone who believes in the First Amendment and the fundamental principle that the government has no authority to decide who gets to speak in a free society,” Fonda then added.
Concluding, she insisted that President Trump is the one who is at fault here, saying, Together, we must call this out clearly and forcefully for what it is: the systematic use of federal power to narrow the range of acceptable speech until only approved voices remain.”
Kimmel, for his part, has insisted that he meant no harm by the joke. Refusing to apologize, he said, “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 added, blaming Melania for the violence her husband has experienced, “I’ve been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence, in particular. But I understand that the First Lady had a stressful experience over the weekend. And probably every weekend is pretty stressful in that house. And also, I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do. And I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.”