Bill Maher continues to surprise me. Last night he let it be known that Jimmy Kimmel’s remarks about Charlie Kirk were wrong.

HBO host Bill Maher said Friday that Jimmy Kimmel was “wrong” to suggest that Charlie Kirk’s suspected assassin was a MAGA Republican — but slammed his former network ABC for taking the comedian off the air.

“You know, Jimmy, look, I don’t think what he said was exactly right. I don’t agree. We don’t agree on that,” the liberal comedian said during the latest episode of “Real Time with Bill Maher.”

“Jimmy’s wrong, I think, to put him in one team,” Maher said, arguing that suspected sniper Tyler Robinson “doesn’t belong in either party — he belongs in a straitjacket.”

Still, Maher said Kimmel “shouldn’t lose his job” over his remarks.

Except that the viewers were letting the network know, and the network affiliates took heed. Sinclair and NextStar knew that if Jimmy was allowed to continue without apologizing, they were going to lose viewers and advertisers. Furthermore, by Wednesday Disney knew that Kimmel wasn’t planning to apologize. He was planning to pour more fuel on the fire. 

Even Kimmel staffers were on board with Jimmy’s remarks. It’s evident that at least some of them are definitely anti-MAGA. 

A dejected Jimmy Kimmel staffer said they “can’t imagine a scenario” in which the late-night show returns after ABC indefinitely axed it over the comedian’s false claim that Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin was a MAGA supporter.

The now-unemployed “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” worker insisted the one-hour late-night show will remain permanently shelved, saying right-wing critics are unrelenting and Disney — ABC’s parent company — will likely buy out the host and fill his slot with reruns of other flagship network programs.

“Even if Jimmy was willing to publicly apologize and donate money to whatever ghoulish conservative group that is demanding it….MAGA people will never be happy,” the unidentified staffer told veteran journalist Rick Ellis in an interview published on his “Too Much TV” Substack Friday.

Lovely bunch aren’t they? 

What’s interesting is that there were protests TO Disney on behalf of Jimmy Kimmel to get him back on the air. Which is ironic because those same people also protested Disney in order to get Gina Carano canceled! 

Someone took the protests too far earlier yesterday. 

‘NBC Nightly News’ anchor Tom @LlamasNBC opened Friday’s show with the ABC Sacramento drive-by shooting: “We are coming on the air tonight with breaking news that just came in moments ago. Someone fired at least three bullets into the ABC affiliate in Sacramento, and then drove… pic.twitter.com/rT8d8WOPyz

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 19, 2025

I’m waiting for all the usual suspects to blame a MAGA supporter. 

Meanwhile, as Bill Maher was preparing for his monologue, CNN’s Van Jones, who had been feuding with Charlie Kirk over Iryna Karutska’s brutal murder, informed us that Charlie had invited him to a debate. 

“Hey, Van, I mean it, I’d love to have you on my show to have a respectful conversation about crime and race. I would be a gentleman as I know you would be as well. We can disagree about the issues agreeably.”

Unfortunately, before I could even respond, Charlie Kirk was killed — seemingly assassinated for the words he’s spoken, though the killer’s exact motives are still being investigated.

I’ve taken issue with many of those words — sometimes strongly — but never his right to speak them. Never his right to express those views and then go home to his family. That is a sacred American value.

Jones went on to unequivocally make it clear that murder should be condemned. 

Today’s attack on Charlie Kirk is absolutely horrifying and heartbreaking. He fought with words not weapons. There is no place for political violence in our society and those responsible must be swiftly brought to justice. My prayers are with Charlie’s loved ones, the traumatized…

— Van Jones (@VanJones68) September 10, 2025

Both Bill Maher and Van Jones were able to provide a bit of reality to their viewers. The problem is, even as Bill went on to debate Tom Homan, will anyone listen? Will they realize that debates, robust respectful debates involving BOTH sides of issues must continue to happen?

This is Bill Maher with Ben Shapiro just days after Charlie Kirk was assassinated. 

Bill Maher is correct in that Jimmy Kimmel’s commentary on Charlie Kirk was wrong. But he is not correct about ABC. Kimmel gave his remarks under that ABC umbrella. The company that he WORKS for. The customer base and advertisers who pay those salaries let it be known his remarks were beyond the pale. 

It’s now highly evident that Kimmel never planned to apologize, but instead was going to double down. That left his employer with no choice but to take his show off the air. 

Maher and Van Jones are correct. Robust debate must never be shut down or killed. What they both miss is that their own networks have been front and center for years in deciding whose debate is allowed, and whose is not. 

https://twitter.com/ScottJenningsKY/status/1969037680873816313

We have a long ways to go. That said, I do hope that both Maher and Jones continue to encourage robust civil debate. We will all be the better for it. 

Feature Photo Credit: Bill Maher via Wikimedia Commons, cropped and modified