Melania Trump urges ABC to 'take stand' on Jimmy Kimmel after widow joke

Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel has defended a joke in which he called Melania Trump an "expectant widow" just days before a shooting incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.The first lady described a Kimmel sketch which aired last Thursday as "hateful and violent", and the White House urged his network, ABC, to fire the comedian.Three days later, a gunman opened fire at the White House Correspondents' dinner in Washington DC, which Donald Trump attended with Melania. Authorities have said the gunman's attack may have targeted members of the Trump administration.Kimmel said the original joke was a "light roast" about the 23-year age difference between the president and his wife.Randy Holmes/Disney via Getty ImagesJimmy Kimmel has received a torrent of backlash from the White House over the joke"Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow," Kimmel said during the Thursday night sketch.Delivering his first monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the shooting, the comedian said the joke was "a very light roast joke about the fact that he's [President Trump] almost 80 and she's younger than I am"."It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination and they know that, I've been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence in particular," he added.Actor George Clooney appeared to defend Kimmel at a gala in New York on Monday night. "Jimmy's a comedian," he said. He pointed to comments White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt made before the White House Correspondents' Dinner, when she said there would be "shots fired" at the dinner - referencing the way press and public officials typically poke fun at each other at the event. "I would argue that Karoline Leavitt didn't mean shots should be fired," Clooney said, according to Variety. "She was making a joke. Fair enough. You look at that side and go, 'Well, jokes are jokes.'"On Monday, the National Religious Broadcasters, an association of Christian media organisations, asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate ABC over Kimmel's remarks, arguing the joke raised "serious concerns about the normalization and potential incitement of political violence". Kimmel was taken off air last September after he made comments about the shooting of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.In a monologue, Kimmel said the "Maga gang" - a reference to Trump's followers - was trying to "score political points" from the murder of Kirk. His show was reinstated a week later. After returning to the show, Kimmel said he accepted that some people felt his remarks about Kirk's death had been "ill-timed or unclear or maybe both", adding: "I get why you're upset."In the latest incident, a resurfaced clip of Kimmel's Thursday joke sparked backlash on social media after the shooting, with critics accusing the comedian of encouraging political violence. Several conservative social media users called for Kimmel to be taken off air.