NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump stepped up his attacks against ABC and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday, urging the network to \u201cget the bum off the air\u201d in a social media post sent shortly after the comic\u2019s latest episode ended.<\/p>\n
The president this week had also expressed anger<\/a> at the network\u2019s chief White House correspondent, Mary Bruce, for questions she asked in an Oval Office meeting, which his press staff followed with a 17-point memo listing grievances against ABC News.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s latest attack against Kimmel came two months after ABC temporarily suspended<\/a> the comic for remarks made following the assassination of GOP activist Charlie Kirk. ABC lifted the suspension<\/a> following a public outcry.<\/p>\n Kimmel\u2019s show Wednesday night began with a blistering monologue about Trump, the first 10 minutes concentrated on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Congress\u2019 vote this week<\/a> to release more material from Epstein\u2019s correspondence. He noted the country was carefully following the movements of \u201cHurricane Epstein.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are ever closer to answering the question: What did the president know, and how old were these women when he knew it?\u201d Kimmel said, riffing off a question<\/a> Sen. Howard Baker Jr. asked about Richard Nixon during the Watergate saga in the 1970s. <\/p>\n Trump struck back in a Truth Social post sent at 12:49 a.m. Eastern. \u201cWhy does ABC Fake News keep Jimmy Kimmel, a man with NO TALENT and VERY POOR TELEVISION RATINGS, on the air? Why do the TV Syndicates put up with it?\u201d Trump said. The latter was a reference to ABC affiliates, some of whom got the movement toward Kimmel\u2019s brief suspension started in September by complaining about his Kirk content.<\/p>\n ABC said it would not comment about Trump\u2019s statement on Kimmel, whose ratings saw a bump upon his return to the air in September. While Trump associated him with ABC News, Kimmel works for the network\u2019s entertainment division.<\/p>\n Kimmel isn\u2019t the only late-night comic to draw Trump\u2019s ire lately. Over the weekend, he called for the firing of NBC\u2019s Seth Meyers<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Epstein case was one of three topics that ABC\u2019s Bruce asked about in pointed questions during an Oval Office news conference Tuesday. The president called Bruce a \u201cterrible reporter\u201d and said he didn\u2019t like her attitude. The Epstein story has clearly gotten under Trump\u2019s skin. Late last week, Trump referred to a Bloomberg News reporter, Catherine Lucey, as \u201cpiggy\u201d during a question-and-answer session on Air Force One.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, the White House press office released a letter outlining grievances against ABC News, some dating back to the president\u2019s first term. \u201cABC \u2018News\u2019 is not journalism,\u201d the press office said. \u201cIt\u2019s a Democrat spin operation masquerading as a broadcast network.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the complaints: George Stephanopoulos\u2019 inaccurate claim that Trump had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll, for which ABC\u2019s parent Disney Corp. agreed to pay<\/a> $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit; the network\u2019s fact-checking<\/a> of Trump during his 2024 presidential debate with Kamala Harris; and former ABC correspondent Terry Moran calling Trump aide Stephen Miller a \u201cworld-class hater.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n There was no immediate comment from ABC News about the criticism.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http:\/\/x.com\/dbauder<\/a> and https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/dbauder.bsky.socia<\/a> l<\/p>\n