Jimmy Kimmel Slams Fox News For ‘Cleaning Up’ Trump’s ‘Shameful’ Moment

Jimmy Kimmel didn’t let Fox News off the hook on Monday night (March 9) as he slammed the network for trying to cover up Donald Trump‘s “shameful” actions at a dignified transfer for U.S. service members.

“We’ve now lost seven American lives in Trump’s war on Iran, and paying respect to troops who sacrificed everything as a result of a decision you made is one of, if not the most important things a president does,” the late-night host said on Monday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! “But God forbid he just do it normally and respectfully.”

Kimmel was referring to the president wearing a Trump-branded USA baseball cap at the ceremony, which is available for $55 on Trump’s merchandise website.

“Baseball players don’t even wear baseball caps during the national anthem, and he wears one to this,” Kimmel continued. “Every situation is a merchandising opportunity.”

The comedian then turned his attention to Fox News’ coverage of the incident, stating, “Of course, whenever the president does something shameful, the heroes at Fox News swoop in to clean it up for him.”

While Fox News initially showed footage from the ceremony, including Trump wearing the cap, they later switched to older footage of Trump from a different ceremony, without a hat.

After backlash, Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Griff Jenkins put out a statement, saying, “We want to acknowledge a mistake made earlier in our program. During our coverage of yesterday’s dignified transfer, we inadvertently aired video from an older dignified transfer instead of the ceremony that took place yesterday. We deeply regret the error…”

“And deeply regret getting caught for the error,” Kimmel quipped.

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“But hey, these things happen, right?” the comedian added. “I’m sure if CNN made that mistake, the folks at Fox would be super chill about it. And I know that if any president did something that was deemed to be disrespectful, if Obama, or Biden, or even a Vice President like Kamala Harris, if one of them ran afoul of military protocol, I’m sure Fox would look the other way on that too, right?”

Kimmel then aired a montage of Fox News hosts ranting about Democratic figures for what they deemed to be disrespectful actions. This included former President Barack Obama saluting while holding a coffee cup and former President Joe Biden checking his watch during a dignified transfer ceremony.

“Not just fair… fair and balanced, folks,” Kimmel joked, referring to the network’s old slogan.

You can watch Kimmel’s full opening monologue in the video above and let us know your thoughts below.