Turning Point USA (TPUSA) CEO Erika Kirk publicly addressed comments from ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel about the assassination of her husband and TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk for the first time during an interview with Fox News host Jesse Watters set to air Wednesday.
ABC suspended Kimmel on Sept. 17 after broadcast station ownership groups Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcasting, who own over 50 ABC affiliates, announced they would not air “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in the wake of his comments on the assassination.
“We hit new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said on the Sept. 15 episode.
Erika Kirk told Watters that Sinclair Broadcasting reached out to her asking if there could be any remedy for Kimmel’s comments.
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“Jimmy Kimmel lied about your husband’s murder and didn’t really apologize,” Watters said in the advanced excerpt from the interview released by Fox News. “What would you say to Jimmy Kimmel?”
“Same thing I told Sinclair. They asked, I haven’t really told anybody this, so they asked, ‘Do you want Jimmy to give you an apology? Do you want to be on a show? How can we make it right?’” Erika Kirk responded. “Through our team, I responded, I said, ‘Tell them thank you, we received their note. This is not our issue, not our mess. If you want to say I’m sorry to someone who’s grieving, go right ahead. But if that’s not in your heart, don’t do it. I don’t want it. I don’t need it.’”
Erika Kirk did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Kimmel’s suspension came after multiple people, including MSNBC political analyst Matthew Dowd and Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah, were fired over comments that celebrated, mocked or justified Kirk’s assassination in various social media venues online, especially on platforms like BlueSky.
Kimmel returned to the air Sept. 23, but did not apologize for the comments, instead claiming that he wasn’t trying to “make light” of Kirk’s assassination.
“I want to make something clear, because it’s important to me as a human, and that is — you understand that it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,” Kimmel claimed. “I don’t — I don’t think there’s anything funny about it.”
Both Nexstar and Sinclair resumed airing “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” although Sinclair had indicated it would insist on an apology in a statement issued when it initially removed Kimmel from the air.
“Sinclair will not lift the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! on our stations until formal discussions are held with ABC regarding the network’s commitment to professionalism and accountability,” the statement read. “Sinclair also [calls] upon Mr. Kimmel to issue a direct apology to the Kirk family. Furthermore, Sinclair asks Mr. Kimmel to make a meaningful personal donation to the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA.”
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