What to Know
In the aftermath of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting, some people are fixating on the fact that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said there would be “shots fired.” From George Clooney’s perspective, the way this comment has been taken out of context is not all that different from late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s “expectant widow” joke.
And yet, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have said Kimmel should be fired over his joke.
Kimmel and Leavitt’s comments sound eerie now.
Karoline Leavitt to Fox before the WHCD event: There will be some shots fired tonight pic.twitter.com/vcVfZxYoat
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 26, 2026
But, in reality, they both made these jokes before the shooting took place. In Kimmel’s case, he did a mock roast a few days prior to the event. When he said that the First Lady had “a glow like an expectant widow,” he was making a joke about her and her husband’s significant age gap. However, after the shooting took place days later, the President and First Lady acted like Kimmel was advocating for violence.
In a Truth Social post, the president described Kimmel’s joke as a “despicable call to violence,” while the First Lady called the comedian out for his “hateful and violent rhetoric.”
Meanwhile, on the night of the shooting, Leavitt said there would be “some shots fired tonight in the room” when referring to the president’s speech.
To Clooney, these two jokes are basically the same.
#GeorgeClooney is defending Jimmy Kimmel after Trump’s latest call for his firing:
— Variety (@Variety) April 28, 2026
“Jimmy’s a comedian, and I would argue that Karoline Leavitt didn’t mean shots should be fired,” Clooney told Variety at the 51st Chaplin Award Gala, where he was honored for his contributions to… pic.twitter.com/ayxVRPnsbW
Kimmel and Leavitt both happened to unknowingly make a joke at a bad time, before the shooting actually occurred. At the 51st Chaplin Awards Gala in New York, Clooney defended Kimmel, arguing that telling jokes is his thing.
“Jimmy’s a comedian,” Clooney told Variety. “And I would argue that Karoline Leavitt didn’t mean shots should be fired. She was making a joke. Fair enough. You look at that side and go, ’Well, jokes are jokes.’ But the rhetoric is a little dangerous. And we’ve seen it a lot lately.”
He also said, “When one side is calling anyone they disagree with traitors to the country, which is a charge that’s punishable by death, just because they don’t agree with someone, I think the rhetoric is a little too heated.”
Kimmel has also defended the joke.
On Monday, April 27, Kimmel addressed the controversy on Jimmy Kimmel Live! He said that his joke was about “the fact that (the president’s) almost 80 and (the First Lady’s) younger than I am.” And although the Trumps acted outraged by the joke, Kimmel thinks they knew what he meant.
“It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination and they know that,” he said, adding, “I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.”
He addressed the controversy again the next day after the president himself joked about dying before his wife. “Wait a minute!” Kimmel joked after showing the clip of the president joking about how he and his wife definitely wouldn’t be together for 60+ years. “Did he just make a joke about his death? My God! He should be fired for that.”
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