Jokes that implicitly call for violence aren’t calling for violence, to hear Jake Tapper tell it. At least, not if they’re told by Jimmy Kimmel.
If they’re told about Jimmy Kimmel, even if they don’t implicitly call for violence, they’re “false, defamatory, wildly irresponsible and not funny.” At least if they’re told by Aaron Rodgers.
Got that?
Well, we really don’t, either, but Tapper is a man who can keep a straight face through his inconsistencies. Heck, he can even sound Very Serious, as if he’s some sort of Walter Cronkite, when he’s 1) defending a late-night host who called the first lady an “expectant widow” just days before her husband faced his third credible assassination attempt in two years and 2) calling for NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers to be taken off the air for joking about Jimmy Kimmel being linked to Jeffrey Epstein.
So, in case you missed it, here’s the joke Kimmel made during his fake White House Correspondents’ Association dinner monologue on his show, before Trump was almost killed at the real dinner:
Jimmy Kimmel: “Our First Lady is here. Mrs. Trump… you have a glow like an expectant widow!”
From his mock WHCD: pic.twitter.com/roDEttBxVN
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) April 26, 2026
Kimmel himself has excused this as a joke about Trump’s age, which totally makes sense when you consider all of those “expectant widow” jokes about Jill Biden, which total, um, zero. But anyway, people calling for ABC to take some sort of action against Kimmel need to get their priorities in check, so sayeth Tapper.
“It is a big problem of calls for violence and dehumanization, and it’s getting worse. But it is not a problem to be wielded like a cudgel to try to stop journalism or jokes,” he said Monday.
“Journalism and jokes are not calls for violence, calls for violence are calls for violence, and far too many Americans in positions of power and influence are too blasé and too glib about those who make them.”
CNN’s Jake Tapper says journalists and comedians like Jimmy Kimmel are not the ones hurling incendiary rhetoric and are not irresponsible for the rise of political violence…
“It is a big problem of calls for violence and dehumanization, and it’s getting worse. But it is not a… pic.twitter.com/AoWGCcZYO0
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 27, 2026
However, when those jokes are being made about Kimmel, Tapper flips. Back in 2024, during one of his appearances on “The Pat McAfee Show” on ESPN, Rodgers made a joke as the so-called Epstein list was about to be unsealed by a judge.
“There’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, who are really hoping that doesn’t come out,” he quipped.
Kimmel didn’t find jokes about him funny, threatening to sue, according to Mediaite. And you know who else didn’t find it funny? Tapper.
“This is child sex trafficking we’re talking about,” said an incensed Tapper. “That’s not funny!”
No, certainly not like “expectant widow” is funny. Instead, he said this was “false, defamatory, wildly irresponsible, and not funny.”
And get this: He also thought that since ESPN was a property of ABC’s parent company, Disney, it was time for them to get Rodgers off the air.
“Why is Disney even allowing this to happen?” Tapper asked Deadspin’s Julie DiCaro. “Does [CEO Bob Iger] allow ESPN and this nitwit … to continue to have this forum, even when they are smearing someone who has been working for ABC for more than 20 years now?”
January, 2024. Jake Tapper freaks out because Aaron Rodgers made a joke on a podcast about Jimmy Kimmel being on the Epstein list.
“False, defamatory, and wildly irresponsible.”
Tapper said the comment was dangerous and called for ESPN to keep the “nitwit” off the air.
For… pic.twitter.com/VVpPYiRkRq
— MAZE (@mazemoore) November 17, 2025
What about those “jokes,” Jake? C’mon. Using Epstein as a cudgel to stop a jocund reference to Kimmel seems a little less problematic than “expectant widow,” especially since nobody seriously thinks Jimmy Kimmel was on the list. But we all know that Kimmel would never joke about Epstein, especially as it relates to Trump.
Jimmy Kimmel reacts to Melania Trump’s Epstein denials by saying “She brushed the dry wall off her business suit and delivered a doozy of a prepared statement demanding that we stop talking about something no one was talking about.”
Let’s rewind, shall we? pic.twitter.com/lwrjx0zkji
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) April 10, 2026
Oh.
In other words, this is yet another case of no standards but double standards. And as for journalistic objectivity, it’s worth noting that Kimmel and Tapper are friends, which is probably one of the explanations for this. At least we have the receipts to prove the hypocrisy — and just how recently it happened.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post Flashback: Jake Tapper Defends Kimmel’s ‘Jokes,’ but Melted Down When Aaron Rodgers Linked ABC Host to Epstein appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.