White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared on Kayleigh McEnany’s new Fox News program Saturday in America to discuss former President Barack Obama’s remarks on the indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live.
“After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like,” Obama posted to X on Thursday.
“This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent — and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it,” he added.
But in remarks to McEnany, Leavitt said Obama’s statement wreaks of cluelessness. “With all due respect to former President Obama, he has no idea what he’s talking about,” Leavitt asserted. “The decision to fire Jimmy Kimmel and to cancel his show came from executives at ABC.”
Leavitt assured viewers that ABC’s decision to suspend Kimmel was not influenced by the White House and that President Donald Trump did not pressure the network to take this action