By Sam Barron | Wednesday, 29 April 2026 10:02 PM EDT
Adam Carolla continued to defend his longtime friend and former co-host Jimmy Kimmel in an appearance Wednesday on Newsmax.
Kimmel faced calls to be fired from President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, after he joked that the first lady had the “glow like an expectant widow.”
Carolla, who previously hosted “The Man Show” with Kimmel, noted that he made the joke days before the tragedy at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
“He made it on Thursday, and no one said anything on Friday or Saturday … until the event Saturday night,” Carolla said on “Finnerty,” referring to the dinner in Washington, where an assailant breached security and opened fire.
“Nobody said anything really until Sunday,” Carolla added. “Two full days had passed before they said [anything].”
Carolla said he believes the assassination attempts against Trump have played a role in the outrage over Kimmel’s joke.
“I think it’s an issue the same way it is with [former FBI Director] James Comey, which is like what he did is not really technically illegal, but in the climate and the knowledge of knowing that there have already been assassination attempts on this person … I think it changes the context of it,” Carolla said.
“It doesn’t make it more or less legal or illegal,” Carolla said.
Carolla said Kimmel thanked him for defending him on his podcast, “The Adam Carolla Show.”
“A week earlier, when I was in Arizona, he hooked me up with a pizza guy who made me a delicious gourmet pizza for free,” Carolla said.
“So I just wrote back, ‘You got me a free pizza less than 10 days ago,’ ” Carolla added. “And it was a joke and he just laughed. And that’s the dynamic. … That’s kind of how we correspond.”
Carolla said he isn’t sure whether Disney or ABC will do anything to Kimmel.
“It all comes down to money and pressure and sponsorship and stuff like that,” Carolla said. “Whether it’s Kimmel or [Stephen] Colbert, these are kind of stances we’re taking.”
“Everyone is rich, everyone’s fine. You know, we’re not really talking about real problems,” Carolla added. “These are first-world problems. Kimmel could get fired tomorrow, and he’d just go to Netflix and do a whole bunch of other projects.”
