Mentalist Oz Pearlman is no longer appearing on late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s show amid a controversy between President Donald Trump and the comedian.
Pearlman was scheduled to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday evening, but the lineup was quietly updated to swap the magician for Pod Save America co-host Jon Lovett, who is known as one of the Democrats’ top media personalities.
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The latest feud between Kimmel and the president erupted after the shooting at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, which Pearlman hosted, calling it a “career-defining moment.” Comedians traditionally host the high-profile dinner in Washington, D.C. On Saturday evening, that changed, with Pearlman filling the slot Kimmel and others have filled in the past after the president did battle with the late-night host last year and called for him to be taken off the air.
On Saturday, Pearlman was performing a magic trick for the president and first lady Melania Trump when a man ran through the event’s security checkpoint, shot a Secret Service agent, and began running toward the room where all the attendees were gathered. Pearlman said the president “went down really hard” when Secret Service agents tackled the president right next to him.
“I’ll never forget the image for my whole life,” Pearlman told CNN’s State of the Union. “We just look at each other for about two seconds.”
“So we were looking at each other. He was just looking, but the expression in his face didn’t show whether there was pain or what was going on,” Pearlman said, noting he thought, “Oh no, are we about to die?”
The suspect was charged Monday with attempting to assassinate the president.
Kimmel drew the president’s and first lady’s ire over comments he made about Melania Trump having the “glow” of “an expectant widow” during a skit criticizing her husband. Kimmel aired the skit during his show last week, prior to the shooting. But clips of the comment resurfaced after the first lady and her husband survived what they described as an attempted assassination attempt.
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The Trumps did not find the skit humorous in the wake of the shooting, instead blaming the comedian for deepening “the political sickness within America.” Melania Trump made a rare statement directly singling out the late-night host and calling on ABC News to fire him. The president joined her in condemning Kimmel, claiming he made a “despicable call to violence.” The president had previously railed against Kimmel for a controversial monologue he did on conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
“Who in their right mind says a wife would be glowing over the potential murder of her beloved husband?” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday.
