Erika Kirk breaks her silence — and her message to Jimmy Kimmel after his remarks on her husband’s death is not what anyone expected.NH
The widow of Charlie Kirk also claimed that the Sinclair Broadcast Group offered to get her an apology from Kimmel.
Erika Kirk is opening up about the six-day controversy after Jimmy Kimmel‘s late-night show was pulled for his remarks about the death of her late husband Charlie Kirk.
In a preview clip from an interview with Jesse Watters set to air on Fox News on Nov. 5, Kirk claims that the Sinclair Broadcast Group — the largest owner of ABC affiliate stations in the country — reached out to her after the Sept. 15 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, in which the host said of Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old suspect in Kirk’s killing: “We had some 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 with everything they can to score political points from it.”
Erika Kirk and late husband Charlie Kirk.
“They asked, ‘Do you want Jimmy to give you an apology? Do you want to be on his show? How can we make it right?'” Kirk tells Watters. “Through our team, I responded. I said, ‘Tell them, thank you. We received their note. This is not our issue. This is not our mess.'”
Sinclair was the first company to speak out against Kimmel after the episode aired, vowing to keep the show off the air “until we are confident that appropriate steps have been taken to uphold the standards expected of a national broadcast platform.”
ABC suspended the series two days later, leading to protests rallying around Kimmel cropping up shortly thereafter. Ultimately, the suspension lasted six days, and Kimmel returned to air Sept. 23.
Although Kirk and Kimmel have never spoken directly, the right-wing media personality tells Watters what she would say if she were to speak with the veteran show host. “If you want to say ‘I’m sorry’ to someone who’s grieving, go right ahead,” she shared. “But if that’s not in your heart, don’t do it. I don’t want it. I don’t need it.”
While Kimmel has never apologized for suggesting Robinson is a supporter of Donald Trump, he has given credit to Kirk for her response to her husband’s death.
“Erika Kirk forgave the man who shot her husband. She forgave him. That is an example we should follow. If you believe in the teachings of Jesus, as I do, there it was,” he said during his monologue the night Live returned from suspension. “That’s it. A selfless act of grace, forgiveness from a grieving widow. It touched me deeply. It touches many and if there’s anything we should take from this tragedy to carry forward, I hope it can be that and not this.”Jimmy Kimmel on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’.
Kimmel also took a strong stand against Trump, who previously gloated about the host’s downfall on social media.
“The president of the United States made it very clear he wants to see me and the hundreds of people who work here fired from our jobs,” Kimmel said. “Our leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can’t take a joke.”
Kimmel continued, “He was somehow able to squeeze [Stephen] Colbert out of CBS. Then he turned his sights on me and now he’s openly rooting for NBC to fire Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, and the hundreds of Americans who work for their shows who don’t make millions of dollars. And I hope that if that happens or if there’s even any hint of that happening, you will be 10 times as loud as you were this week.”
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
Kristin Chenoweth says backlash to Charlie Kirk comments ‘nearly broke me’
Reese Witherspoon reveals why Lorne Michaels pleaded with her to host ‘SNL’ after 9/11
