Barack Obama accuses Trump admin of ‘new and dangerous’ level of cancel culture over Jimmy Kimmel cancelation

"After years of complaining about cancel culture," Obama said, "the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn't like."

Obama did not speak up when his White House successor Joe Biden's administration ran roughshod over social media companies by reaching out to execs at Twitter and Facebook to tell them to flag and remove so-called misinformation and disinformation on Covid, elections, race, the first family, and other matters. He did not speak up either when Trump was banned from social media platforms as a sitting president in January 2021.

Roseanne Barr replied that Michele Obama had called the president of ABC in 2018 to get her kicked off the show that she created, starred in, and was named for her after she made comments about a former Obama staffer on social media. Kimmel was on board with ABC for pulling Roseanne off her show.

Obama appears to have more sympathy for a late night talk show host than a man who was brutally murdered in front of his family, friends, and the world just one week ago. The article he cited claimed that Trump "has learned to effectively weaponize the regulatory powers of the federal government to punish speech it doesn’t like from people it doesn’t like." ABC canceled the show after affiliate stations across the country refused to air it.

President Donald Trump has taken aim at media companies for very specific reasons and he's won in court. CBS fraudulently edited an interview with then-Vice President and presidential hopeful Kamala Harris which made her appear to have a better answer on the Israel Hamas war than her first answer would suggest. He has recently taken up suit against The New York Time for suggesting that he was part of Jeffrey Epstein's ring of pedophiles.

On Wednesday, FCC Chair Brendan Carr slammed ABC for Kimmel's comments, which were not only insensitive to many viewers but contained falsehoods. Kimmel had claimed that Kirk's assassin was part of the "MAGA gang," when the 22-year-old charged with the crime was a far-leftist with a trans boyfriend.

This week, Obama spoke out against Trump, claiming that Trump is to blame for the "broader problem" of vilifying political opponents. This after Kirk was murdered and the suspect is someone who viewed him as a political opponent.

Obama also both-sidesed the killing, saying "On both sides undoubtedly there are people who are extremist and who say things that are contrary to what I believe are America’s core values." Then he cleared himself of any wrong-doing, saying "But I will say that those extreme views were not in my White House." It was under his administration that the nation began to believe that racism was on the rise in the 2010s.

Obama also complained about the termination of Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah, saying "This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent—and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it."

The Washington Post cited two of her Bluesky posts in firing her from her position as a full time columnist with the outlet. Both of them were made in the wake of the assassination of Kirk and were about him. "Refusing to tear my clothes and smear ashes on my face in performative mourning for a white man that espoused violence is….not the same as violence," she said.

A second read "Part of what keeps America so violent is the insistence that people perform care, empty goodness and absolution for white men who espouse hatred and violence."

The Post said in their letter to Attiah "Your postings on Bluesky (which clearly identifies you as a Post Columnist) about white men in response to the killing of Charlie Kirk do not comply with our policy."

For Attiah, however, these comments were part of a broader collection of comments that the paper likely wanted to distance itself from. She downplayed Islamic terrorism in France, claiming that jihadists were merely "deeply disturbed individuals, lone wolves," and lied when she claimed they had "no ties to international terrorist networks."

She claimed the termination was because of her race. "I was the last remaining Black full-time columnist at the Post, in one of the nation's most diverse regions. Washington D.C. no longer has a paper that reflects the people it serves. What happened to me is part of a broader purge of Black voices from academia, business, government, and media—a historical pattern as dangerous as it is shameful—and tragic." Attiah did not provide examples of those alleged purges.