When Jimmy Kimmel returned to the airwaves after his nearly week-long suspension, he said it was never his intention to make light of the murder of a young man, referring to the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. And he thanked the people who made their voices heard so that "mine could be heard,” including two Kentucky Republicans.
"I want to thank the people who don't support my show and what I believe, but support my right to share those beliefs anyway....Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul," Kimmel said.
Kimmel's suspension sparked controversy over First Amendment rights and whether there may have been political intervention to silence the comedian.
During his most recent Team Kentucky press briefing, Governor Andy Beshear was asked to weigh in on the issue.
"I believe in the freedom of speech. The freedom of speech is so important it's in the First Amendment. That means it's really, really important," Beshear said. "And freedom of speech does mean that people can say some ugly things, but that's typically what turns people off from them."
The Governor criticized the president for overstepping his authority by issuing threats and defining free speech in terms of how many people say nice things compared to the number of negative things said about him.
"The FCC commissioner threatening a network, because it was an outright threat for jokes a comedian tells, violates the First Amendment and is a major overstep. And now trying to walk it back, acting like he never said it. Listen, we heard his free speech, and it was a threat against those networks."
Beshear added that "when you take one of these jobs, you accept that people are going to be critical of you, and that's part of free speech.
During a stop in Greenup County last week, Senator Rand Paul joked that the thank you from Kimmel was the first time he had been on the program and said, “I’m sure he (Kimmel) and I probably don’t have a lot of agreements, but I don’t think the government should be involved, and I stick with that. The government should not have anything to do with the content of a comedian’s monologue.”