Stephen Colbert defends Jimmy Kimmel, call Trump autocrat

Late-night television host Stephen Colbert gave a full-throated defense of Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday night and called President Donald Trump an “autocrat.”

“This is blatant censorship,” Colbert said in a fiery opening monologue at the taping of his CBS show in New York City, referring to the suspension of the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” a day earlier by ABC.

The Disney subsidiary yanked Kimmel’s show indefinitely after outrage over his recent on-air comments linking the alleged killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk to Trump’s MAGA movement.

Trump has praised Kimmel’s suspension and suggested Thursday that the Federal Communications Commission might revoke the licenses of broadcast TV networks that are “against” him.

“With an autocrat, you cannot give an inch,” Colbert told his audience at “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” in the Ed Sullivan Theater.

“Jimmy, I stand with you and your staff 100%” said Colbert, who also has been criticized by the president.

Colbert dedicated Thursday’s show to free speech and to Kimmel’s team.

The episode featured a segment of “The Colbert Report,” in which the host satirically portrays a conservative pundit, and interviews with CNN host Jake Tapper and The New Yorker Editor David Remnick.

Remnick discussed his time as a correspondent in Moscow during the eclipse of the Soviet Union, and the early years in power of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Remnick said that one of the first things that Putin did to consolidate his power was to crack down on comedians.

Colbert looked physically exhausted at the end of the show.

A number of people in the audience later praised Colbert’s defiant stance.

John Carter, a 61-year-old New Jersey resident, told CNBC, “He really said no matter what you do, we’re not going to let you get away with this madness.”

Another Garden State resident in the audience, Camille Carter, said, “I would be surprised if he makes it to the end of his contract in May.”

“Steven is putting himself out there on our behalf and raising the alarm,” said Solyasela Escudlo, a 45-year-old from the Bronx. “It takes a lot of courage to do what he did tonight, and it was simply stating facts that democracy depends on free speech.”

Corey Dickinson, 63, said, “Our country is under great threat of freedom of speech. This is a turning point in America, and a very scary time.”

“However, my wife and I both said to ourselves after watching this episode that we both felt like we were watching history in the making, and this might very well be Stephen Colbert’s last show on CBS,” said Dickinson, who lives in Palm Springs, California.

Earlier Thursday, late-night legend David Letterman called ABC’s suspension of Kimmel’s show “ridiculous,” saying, “You can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian criminal administration in the Oval Office.”

“I feel bad about this because we all see where this is going, correct?” Letterman told Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic Festival in New York.

“It’s managed media,” said Letterman, who hosted shows on CBS and NBC for more than three decades.

“And it’s no good. It’s silly. It’s ridiculous,” he said.

ABC,, on Wednesday night said it was pulling the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show off the air “indefinitely.” Kimmel has not been fired.

Letterman on Thursday compared ABC’s move to the decision by CBS in July to cancel the The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” effective next May.

A week after CBS cancelled the Colbert show — which has mocked Trump — the FCC approved an $8 billion merger between the network’s owner, Paramount, and Skydance Media.

“They took care of Colbert,” Letterman said Thursday.

“That was rude, that was inexcusable, the man deserves a great deal of credit, he’s in the Hall of Fame nine times, and to be manipulated like that, because the Ellison family [which owned Skydance] didn’t want to trouble Donald Trump with this move, so they got rid of him,” Letterman said.

“Not only got rid of him, got rid of the whole franchise.”

Letterman said he’s been in touch with Kimmel since the suspension was announced.

“He was nice enough to text me this morning,” Letterman said. “And he’s sitting up in bed taking nourishment. He’s going to be fine.”

Another late-night host, Jon Stewart, on Thursday planned to host an episode of “The Daily Show.”

Stewart, as a rule, only hosts the Comedy Central show on Mondays. He is set to interview Maria Ressa, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and the author of the book “How to Stand Up to a Dictator,” the Associated Press reported.

Trump on Wednesday night crowed about Kimmel’s suspension and mentioned Colbert.

“Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible.”

He suggested that NBC follow ABC’s example and cancel its own evening shows, “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”

Trump suggested to reporters on Thursday that the FCC might revoke the licenses of broadcast television networks that are “against” him.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost the 2024 presidential election to Trump, in a tweet on Thursday, said, “What we are witnessing is an outright abuse of power.”

“This administration is attacking critics and using fear as a weapon to silence anyone who would speak out,” she wrote.

“Media corporations — from television networks to newspapers — are capitulating to these threats,” Harris wrote. “We cannot dare to be silent or complacent in the face of this frontal assault on free speech.”

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.