Schumer questions whether Epstein had anything to do with Jimmy Kimmel’s cancellation

After news broke that late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was canceled by Disney over his comments about Charlie Kirk, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer took to social media to question the motivations behind the abrupt cancellation.    

Schumer questioned in a Thursday afternoon post on X whether “Epstein” was “the real reason” Kimmel was forcibly scrubbed from the airwaves. “IS EPSTEIN THE REAL REASON TRUMP HAD KIMMEL CANCELED?!” Schumer asked in the post, which also included a screenshot of a New York Times article about how all the popular late-night hosts, including Kimmel, have used the newly released Epstein documents to roast the president over his alleged association with the disgraced financier. 

Digital reached out to Schumer’s representatives for more details on what Schumer was attempting to imply, but did not receive a response in time for publication.

JIMMY KIMMEL CANCELLATION SPARKS FIERCE CELEBRITY SPLIT IN HOLLYWOOD

Nexstar Media Group, which owns hundreds of television stations, announced on Wednesday that it would be pulling Kimmel’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” talk show from its ABC affiliates “for the foreseeable future” and would replace it with other programming over his comments about alleged Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson.

“Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views or values of the local communities in which we are located,” Nexstar’s broadcasting chief, Andrew Alford, said in a press release. “Continuing to give Mr. Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time, and we have made the difficult decision to preempt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue.” 

Trump spoke about the cancellation Thursday while he was in the United Kingdom, telling reporters that Kimmel “was fired” because he had bad ratings.

ABC’S ‘JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!’ HEMORRHAGED VIEWERS OVER PAST DECADE, LOST 72% AMONG KEY DEMO

President Donald Trump was a guest on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Dec. 16, 2015.  (Randy Holmes/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)

“Jimmy Kimmel was fired ’cause he had bad ratings more than anything else and he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk. And Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person, he had very bad ratings and they shoulda fired him a long time ago,” Trump said during a Thursday press conference alongside United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer in England. “He was fired for lack of talent,” Trump added. 

Meanwhile, in a social media post on his platform, Truth Social, on Wednesday night, Trump called the cancellation “great news for America.”  

The Kirk comments in question reportedly stem from a Monday airing of Kimmel’s show, during which he accused conservatives of reaching “new lows” in their efforts to try to pin Kirk’s assassin as connected to some form of left-wing ideology.

Jimmy Kimmel’s popular late-night show was canceled following comments he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk (right).  (David Russell/Disney via Getty Images; AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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“We hit 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 doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said.

Following news of the cancellation, Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr applauded local television stations for “standing up to serve the interests of their community.”

Digital’s Joseph Wulfsohn and Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.