Morning Joe host brushes off Jimmy Kimmel’s ‘widow’ joke and says Trump’s group are feigning ‘crocodile tears’

Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough has slammed Donald Trump’s inner circle for crying ‘crocodile tears’ over Jimmy Kimmel‘s latest joke about the president. 

Kimmel has been criticized for claiming the First Lady looked like ‘an expectant widow’ days before shots were fired at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.   

The comedian has said the joke was a reference to the 24-year age gap between Melania, 56, and Donald Trump, who will turn 80 in June. 

Trump blasted the joke as ‘beyond the pale’ and called for Kimmel to be ‘immediately fired by Disney and ABC’, while MAGA loyalists described it as ‘sick and tasteless’. 

But Scarborough countered the condemnation by giving examples of times Trump has called for violence against his political rivals, and accusing his inner circle of feigning their outrage. 

‘That’s crocodile tears. You know if they would sit back and just let things take their natural course, there would be enough criticism of Kimmel from their side,’ he said.

‘But such crocodile tears from people who have sat back and said absolutely nothing when Donald Trump said the chairman of the joint chiefs should be executed for treason. 

‘When the president of the United States said Liz Cheney should be shot in the face or with a firing squad when he is also said other people should be killed or executed and put them in a position where they have to have 24-hour security. 

‘It’s happened time and time again. So again, crocodile tears there.’

Scarborough said he personally ‘wouldn’t have said something like that about any president,’ but that Kimmel’s joke was exactly what happens at a ‘roast.’ He added that previous roasts have been ‘far more personal’. 

‘There are always those sort of jokes. Would I have said it? No, I wouldn’t have said it. Would you have said it? No. Would Mika? No, none of us would say that,’ he said. 

‘But comedians, especially at these type of events, which we weren’t having, comedians usually make those sort of jokes that make you go, ‘that’s a little tough.’ 

‘And it’s happened also with the White House Correspondents’ Dinner through the years. So again, making the joke was about his age. 

‘The joke wasn’t about anything else.’ 

When asked for a response to Scarborough’s comment, the White House referred the Daily Mail to a statement posted to X by its Director of Communications. 

‘Jimmy Kimmel is a s*** human being for: #1. Making a disgusting joke about assassinating the President #2. Doubling down on that joke instead of doing the decent thing by apologizing,’ Steven Cheung wrote. 

‘ABC needs to fire him immediately and he should be shunned for the rest of his life.’

Kimmel’s sketch where he called Melania an ‘expectant widow’ involved a parody of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner two days before the event.

‘Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,’ Kimmel said before turning his attention to the First Lady’s birthday.

‘You know, Melania’s birthday is on Sunday. She’s planning to celebrate at home the same way she always does, looking out a window and whispering, “What have I done?”‘

Melania responded by slamming ‘Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric’ which she claimed was ‘intended to divide our country’.

‘His monologue about my family isn’t comedy – his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America,’ the First Lady wrote on X Monday morning.

She called on ABC to ‘take a stand’ against Kimmel, while the president went further by saying he should be ‘immediately fired’. 

‘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,’ he wrote on Truth Social. 

‘Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.’

The Trump-aligned Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is expected to officially challenge Disney’s eight licenses for its ABC stations on Tuesday afternoon, according to CNN’s Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter.  

MAGA loyalists echoed the outrage on social media, with some slamming the joke as ‘sick and tasteless’ while others decried Kimmel as ‘evil’.  

On Monday evening, Kimmel doubled down on his joke, saying it was clearly pertaining to the ‘age difference’ between Trump and his wife, not an assassination. 

He also condemned the shooting attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner while offering condolences to everyone impacted.  

‘It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am,’ the comedian said. 

‘It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination. And they know that.’

‘I’ve been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence, in particular,’ he added. 

‘But I understand that the First Lady had a stressful experience over the weekend and probably every weekend is pretty stressful in that house.’

Kimmel then twisted Melania’s words to criticize her husband again.

‘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,’ he quipped.

He then pointed out that both he and Donald Trump were legally protected by the First Amendment.

‘By the way, I should point out Donald Trump is allowed to say what he wants to say, as you are you, as am I, as are all of us, because under the First Amendment we have a right as Americans to free speech,’ he said to applause from his audience.

Kimmel then went out of his way to apologize to the Trumps and all those in attendance at the dinner.

‘I am sorry that you and the president and everyone in that room on Saturday went through that. I really am. 

 ‘Just because no one got killed doesn’t mean it wasn’t traumatic. It’s scary and we should come together and be best,’ he added, referencing Melania’s slogan to end internet bullying.

He then joked that Karoline Leavitt’s ‘shots fired’ remark before the dinner was just as predictive of what happened as anything he said.

Kimmel played the clip where the White House press secretary said: ‘I will tell you this speech tonight will be classic Donald J Trump. It’ll be funny. It’ll be entertaining. There will be some shots fired tonight.’

‘Well, then maybe someone should look into this psychic lady, too,’ Kimmel said.

He also played a clip from 2010 where the President told a correspondent from Kimmel’s show ‘I happen to love Jimmy.’