Kamala Harris ripped Disney over its suspension of late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel – despite her close, decades-long friendship with a top Disney executive who is in the middle of the mess.
“I am a lifelong public servant,” but “I’ve worked closely with the private sector over many years,” Harris told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Monday night during her first news interview since she lost to President Trump in the 2024 election.
“And I always believed that if push came to shove, those titans of industry would be guardrails for our democracy, for the importance of sustaining democratic institutions. And one by one by one, they have been silent,” the former vice president continued.
ABC is owned by the Mouse House’s Disney Entertainment division – whose co-chair Dana Walden has been a friend of Harris’ since 1994.
Their husbands, Matt Walden and Doug Emoff, have known each other since the 1980s.
The Waldens have donated to Harris’ political campaigns since at least 2003, and Harris has called the couple “extraordinary friends.”
Disney CEO Bob Iger has also donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democrats over the years.
Harris is just the latest Dem to slam ABC after the network last week axed Kimmel’s show “indefinitely” after he said right-wingers were politicizing Charlie Kirk’s assassination – and seemingly implied that the killer might have been a MAGA conservative.
Kimmel is set to return on Tuesday with his late-night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Yet Sinclair and Nexstar – which collectively control over 20% of ABC affiliates – have said they will not air the latest episode as Kimmel continues to refuse to apologize for his remarks.
“Perhaps it’s because they want a merger approved or they want to avoid an investigation,” Harris told Maddow.
“But at some point they’ve got to stand up for the sake of the people who rely on all of these institutions – to have integrity and to, at some point, be the guardrails against a tyrant [who] was using the federal government to execute his whim and fancy because of a fragile ego.”
Nexstar, which owns 32 ABC affiliates, is currently seeking approval from Trump’s FCC for its acquisition of rival Tegna and its 13 ABC stations – which would make it the largest owner.
Sinclair is currently the largest owner of ABC affiliates at 38 stations.
Kimmel, who rakes in $15 million a year, will address the controversy during his monologue on Tuesday but stop short of apologizing, The Post previously reported.
Last week, just a few hours before ABC announced Kimmel’s suspension, FCC Chair Brendan Carr had suggested there was a “strong case” for the FCC to take action against ABC and Disney.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said during a podcast with Benny Johnson, a right-wing pundit and YouTuber.
The day after Kimmel’s suspension, Trump – who cheered the late-night host’s ouster – said that the US government might start revoking broadcast licenses from networks that are mostly “against” him.
He said that ultimately the decision “will be up to Brendan Carr,” who earlier called Kimmel’s comments “truly sick.”
During his show’s opening monologue on Sept. 15, Kimmel said: “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.”
Carr later denied that his calls for ABC to take action against Kimmel were linked to the late-night comedian’s anti-Trump politics.
He argued that networks with TV licenses – like ABC, NBC and CBS – have an obligation to serve the public interest, and Kimmel failed to do so by “appearing to directly mislead the American public.”
The day after Kimmel’s monologue, court documents were filed that showed that the mother of Tyler Robinson – the accused killer – told investigators that “her son had become more political and had started to lean more to the left.”
