Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert returned fire Tuesday after President Trump provoked the late-night hosts by recently criticizing both of them and their broadcast TV rivals.
The hosts of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” each responded in light of Mr. Trump laying into them earlier Tuesday in an interview and on Twitter.
Speaking to The New York Post, Mr. Trump said while criticizing several late night TV hosts that Mr. Colbert “has no talent” and that “there’s nothing funny about him.” He later took aim Tuesday on Twitter at Mr. Colbert, Mr. Kimmel and “The Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon while lauding Greg Gutfeld, the face of a weekly Fox News program.
“His Ratings easily beat no talent Stephen Colbert, nice guy Jimmy Fallon, and wacko ’last placer’ Jimmy Kimmel,” Mr. Trump tweeted about the Fox News host.
Mr. Kimmel fired back moments later from his own Twitter account, tweeting: “Happy Cinco de Mayo Mr. President! Thanks for the shout-out - now get back to work royally f—-ing everything up!”
Addressing the president’s tweet on camera later Tuesday, Mr. Kimmel took a shot at Mr. Trump for slamming the TV hosts amid the global coronavirus pandemic that continues to devastate the country.
“I hope he wasn’t talking about me,” Mr. Kimmel said. “I think maybe this was another typo situation. I think what he meant to tweet was: ’I am completely devastated by the loss of life caused by this insidious virus. My thoughts are with the families of those who have passed. I pledge to spend every waking moment working to make sure our medical workers have the support they need and every American has access to tests. P.S. Congrats to Greg Gutfeld.”
Mr. Colbert reacted on his own show Tuesday, meanwhile, responding: “It’s nice to know that Trump is staying laser-focused on the ball during a crisis.”
“The Greg Gutfeld Show” was the top late-night show last month, according to Nielsen ratings data, attracting an average of 2.862 million viewers, The Hill reported Monday. That program airs Saturday evenings, while the other shows mentioned by Mr. Trump run on weeknights.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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