After his elimination on the current season of “Dancing with the Stars,” actor and late night vet Andy Richter sounded off on President Donald Trump, with no fear of stepping on any toes.
In a sitdown with Entertainment Weekly, the longtime Conan O’Brien sidekick and host of podcast “The Three Questions With Andy Richter” was asked how he and his former on-air partner would heave treated Trump’s crackdown on other late night hosts like Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert.
“We would be doing what everyone else of them is doing,” Richter told EW, “which is all gas and no brakes. Because f‑‑‑ that guy, you know?”
ABC in September suspended Kimmel indefinitely after backlash to the host’s comments about conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death.
O’Brien was among the many current or former late night hosts to voice support for Kimmel.
“The suspension of [Jimmy Kimmel] and the promise to silence other Late Night hosts for criticizing the administration should disturb everyone on the Right, Left, and Center,” O’Brien posted on social media platforms. “It’s wrong and anyone with a conscience knows it’s wrong.”
Kimmel returned to air just a few days later.
Richter, 59, appeared as sidekick to O’Brien on several late night talk shows including “Late Night,” “The Tonight Show” and “Conan.” He has also starred on shows “Andry Richter Controls the Universe,” “The Mighty B!” and “All Hail King Julien,” a spinoff from the “Madagascar” animated film series in which he voices Mort.
Richter has also appeared in the films “Elf,” “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” “Blades of Glory,” “Semi-Pro” and “Pootie Tang.”
He told EW he was asked if Kimmel should “back off” from criticizing Trump during his suspension from his ABC show. “I said, ‘No, he should go harder,’ he said. “There’s no question.’”
Richter called Trump’s response to the mockery “outrageous” and “un-American,” and an example of “cowardice of somebody that can’t take a joke.”
He said it shows “profound insecurity,” “weakness,” and “childishness” and even poked at the structure of anyone’s anatomy who would use the wheels of government to silence comedians. “It is just so indicative of, I wanna say small d—,” he said. “But just weak, weak, weak, weak people. Weak, uncreative, not real bright people.”
Read the full Entertainment Weekly piece.
Paired with professional dancer Emma Slater, Richter competed on season 34 of “Dancing with the Stars” before they were eliminated during the quarterfinals, finishing in seventh place overall.
The Trump-Kimmel feud continued this week, as the president posted on Truth Social urging ABC to remove him from television again.
“Why does ABC Fake News keep Jimmy Kimmel, a man with NO TALENT and VERY POOR TELEVISION RATINGS, on the air?” Trump wrote. “Get the bum off the air!!!”
Kimmel responded during his Thursday night monologue on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
“If you’re watching tonight – which I presume you are – how about this: I’ll go when you go,” he said. “We’ll be a team. Let’s ride off into the sunset together – like Butch Cassidy and the Suntan Kid. And until then – if I may borrow a phrase from you … quiet, Piggy!”
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