Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel cleared a very low bar when it came to their comments on the murder of conservative superstar Charlie Kirk.
They said all the right things about the assassination. It was the least they could have done.
Kimmel touched on “gun violence,” but kept the messaging to a minimum via his Instagram feed.
Instead of the angry finger-pointing, can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human? On behalf of my family, we send love to the Kirks and to all the children, parents and innocents who fall victim to senseless gun violence.
Colbert addressed the assassination on-air:
Our condolences go out to his family and all of his loved ones … I’m old enough to personally remember the political violence of the 1960s, and I hope it is obvious to everyone in America that political violence does not solve any of our political differences. Political violence only leads to more political violence.
Good. And better than some MSNBC pundits or Democrats who quickly used Kirk’s passing as another cudgel against President Donald Trump.
But wait.
It’s not an accident that the shooter reportedly carved hard-left, anti-fascist, messages on his bullet casings. More importantly, why would anyone want to kill a God-fearing conservative who specialized in having cordial debates with those who don’t agree with his worldview?
Kirk stared down unhinged college students, calmly letting them speak before deftly deconstructing their arguments. He didn’t shout or belittle them. He wanted to make a connection, to share why he feels the way he feels.
Is that the MAGA image Colbert and Kimmel invoke from their bully pulpits? Hardly. And while you’re at it, what about Seth Meyers or John Oliver? These hard-Left comedians don’t simply traffic in political satire. They use their platforms to savage all things conservative.
Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images
They manipulate facts and feast on hoaxes — Russian collusion, anyone? They pounce on news stories that quickly prove to be incorrect: The strike on Iran’s nuclear weapons program did zero damage, right?
While Bill Maher offers left-leaning monologues with balance and bite, Colbert and co. go scorched earth. Nightly. Their comedy routines paint President Trump and anyone on his MAGA train in the most unflattering terms possible.
“[If You] ‘have to tell people I’m not Hitler, something is wrong,” Kimmel once said in a typical attack.
Colbert routinely plays a similar card, feasting on wobbly news articles to buttress his points.
Hilarious.
Kimmel infamously cried, on air, the night after President Trump won re-election late last year. Between sobs, he described a frightening scenario under Trump 2.0.
It was a terrible night for women, for children, for the hundreds of thousands of hard-working immigrants who make this country go, for health care, for our climate, for science, for journalism, for justice, for free speech. It was a terrible night for poor people, for the middle class, for seniors who rely on Social Security, for our allies in Ukraine, for NATO and democracy and decency.
It wasn’t comedy. It was pure fear-mongering.
Easterseals/Getty Images for Easterseals
What does this have to do with Kirk? Well, everything. Late-night liberals paint Trump and his MAGA faithful with a very broad brush, and they have for some time.
Remember how the far-Left “Saturday Night Live” created a faux Trump campaign ad all the way back in 2016 that depicted his voters as KKK members and Nazis?
It hasn’t gotten better since then.
Plus, Kirk had plenty to do with the president’s re-election. His bond with young voters was legendary. He worked in tandem with Trump’s messaging to get him back in the White House, powered partly by youthful voters who saw more than a few of Kirk’s legendary debate smackdowns.
Every article about his murder tied Kirk to Trump.
Blaming extreme rhetoric for real-world violence shouldn’t be done lightly, and it’s always more complicated than it sounds. This isn’t a new political tactic. President Bill Clinton proved that maxim when he immediately called out right-wing talk radio following the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
That was politically expedient and foolhardy. Compared to modern political rhetoric, talk radio titan Rush Limbaugh was a veritable pussycat. Plus, whatever sway right-wing radio had at the time was minuscule compared to the bigger media picture today.
Would-be assassins can now feast on extreme Fake News from CNN, MSNBC or other dishonest outlets. Or, they can listen to a month’s worth of late-night monologues. The foul messaging hits us from all sides in 2025. It’s the new abnormal.
Free speech still matters, of course. We shouldn’t silence a late-night host for resorting to extreme talking points, Fake News and hate. That’s a slippery slope and legitimately scary.
They still should take a long, hard look in the mirror to grasp what they’re injecting into the body politic. Will Kirk’s shocking murder make that happen?
If past is prologue, absolutely not. The assassination attempt against Trump last year proves it.
Ironically, Kirk cheered on “South Park” when the venerable series took direct aim at him last month. The series showed Cartman becoming a “master debater” via the “Got a Nut?” episode, his hairstyle directly copying Kirk’s signature ‘do.
It wasn’t an accident. And Kirk greeted the satirical takedown with a smile.
Why? It wasn’t cruel or meant to injure. It was political comedy, and he recognized it as such.
There’s going to be a lot said about this, but we need to have a good spirit about being made fun of. This is all a success, this is all a win. We as conservatives, we have thick skin, not thin skin, and you can make fun of us, and it doesn’t matter.
He got the joke. Sometimes, there’s nothing funny about what comics like Kimmel and Colbert add to the conversation.
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Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of HollywoodInToto.com. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at HollywoodInToto.com.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
