Jimmy Kimmel fired back at Newsmax Wednesday night after host Rob Schmitt accused Jimmy Kimmel Live! of pushing “propaganda” and argued the FCC should teach ABC “a lesson.”
The exchange stemmed from a monologue earlier this week in which Kimmel argued that the “SAVE America Act” being pushed by President Donald Trump is aimed at suppressing voter turnout ahead of the midterms.
“I brought this up during the monologue the other night, and I guess this didn’t sit too well with one of the Schmitt-heads on Newsmax who would like to report me to the authorities,” Kimmel said on Wednesday night’s show.
Kimmel then aired a clip of Schmitt criticizing the show on Newsmax, where the host argued that Jimmy Kimmel Live!—which he described as “a federally regulated comedy show”—should not be criticizing election legislation that he claimed “about 80% of Americans want.”
“Again, ABC is defiant,” Schmitt asserted. “What the FCC is supposed to regulate, ABC breaks that law every single night. And it’s about time they learned a lesson for that. That is not a comedy show, it’s propaganda.”
Coming out of the clip, Kimmel scoffed, “They’re such tattletales. They’re so worried about cancel culture, until I come on and then they’re like, ‘Call the FCC! He’s breaking the law!!'”
“How does this not embarrass them?” he added.
Kimmel also pointed to Newsmax’s $67 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, which sued the network for spreading false claims that its voting technology helped Joe Biden defeat Trump in 2020.
“They’re literally on a payment plan right now… for spreading Trump’s election lies,” he said. “They paid $20 million two months ago for their lies, they have to pay another $20 million in January of next year…. But we’re propaganda!”
In closing, Kimmel likened Newsmax to a supermarket circular promoting sale items: “Newsmax is to the Trump administration what the Fearless Flyer is to Trader Joe’s.”
Watch the Newsmax monologue segment cued up above.
Omg at least Fox News has some people in it that I have a little bit of respect for. I literally can’t stand Newsmax. They are quite literally a text book, cookie cutter propaganda network