Jimmy Kimmel Benched & Socialists Bear Arms? | 9.19.25

Summary

Morning Wire Podcast Summary

Episode: Jimmy Kimmel Benched & Socialists Bear Arms?
Date: September 19, 2025
Hosts: John Bickley (Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief) & Georgia Howe

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Episode Overview

This episode of Morning Wire tackles several major political and cultural stories dominating the news: the indefinite suspension of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel following his controversial remarks after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, a deep-dive into the far-left Socialist Rifle Association and its links to firearms and activism, and a report on the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts. The hosts and reporters present an analysis highlighting the partisan divide around free speech, violence, and immigration enforcement.

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Main Segments and Key Points

1. Jimmy Kimmel Suspended by ABC for Remarks on Charlie Kirk's Assassination

[02:40 – 07:35]

What Happened?

• Jimmy Kimmel was suspended indefinitely from his late-night ABC show after making controversial comments about conservative commentator Charlie Kirk’s recent assassination.
• Media pressure, not direct FCC action, was cited as the primary reason for Kimmel’s suspension, with several ABC affiliates refusing to carry his show.

Kimmel’s Comments and Fallout

• Kimmel suggested conservatives were “doing everything they can to score political points” from Kirk's death and implied the killer’s motives were being misrepresented.
• Official reports had already identified the killer as deeply left-leaning, motivated by ideology and personal animus towards Kirk’s views.
• Kimmel refused to apologize and reportedly planned to “triple down” on denouncing Trump supporters, leading ABC (owned by Disney) to preemptively bench him.

Notable Quotes

• Georgia Howe [03:21]:
  “We had some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
• Megan Basham (Daily Wire Culture Reporter) [03:33]:
  “Kimmel made false statements that he certainly should have known were false at the time that he made them... So you can understand why a lot of people were offended.”
• John Bickley [07:29]:
  “There’s no doubt that his shows don’t draw the audiences they once did.”

FCC and Affiliate Response

• Celebrities and politicians accused the government of coercion via the FCC.
• FCC Chair Brendan Carr pointed out the unique public interest obligations of broadcast networks, though there was no evidence of formal FCC action.
• The episode underscores growing consequences for divisive or inaccurate speech on broadcast platforms, especially where advertiser and affiliate pressure is involved.

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2. Profile: The Socialist Rifle Association and Left-Wing Gun Activism

[08:10 – 12:47]

Who Are They?

• The Socialist Rifle Association (SRA), founded in 2019, boasts thousands of members and strong ties to both socialist and transgender activism.
• The group trains leftists in firearms usage “to protect against fascists,” with 1/3 of members self-identified as anarchists, 1/3 as Marxist-Leninists or Maoists, and 1/3 LGBTQ.
• Leadership is notably nonbinary (4/13 national leaders use “they” pronouns).

Ideology and Activities

• SRA is entwined with social justice causes, particularly trans rights, and encourages “queer-friendly” firearms education.
• Notable quote from member (documentary clip) [09:30]:
  • “I am a non binary trans femme... The Trump presidency and seeing how like Trump emboldened literal Nazis, literal fascists... I believe a box has been open that we're not going to be able to shut.”

Links to Violence

• Daily Wire reporter Luke Rosiak reports that SRA members have been common threads in several violent incidents:
  • Armed assault on ICE facility in Alvarado, TX, with main suspect alleged SRA member [10:30].
  • Two firebombings of Tesla dealerships by SRA members.
  • A member fighting with foreign terrorist groups and later encouraging violence against conservatives involved in the January 6 Capitol riot.

Financial and Legal Status

• The SRA operated as a Kansas-incorporated nonprofit, but its federal tax status was revoked.
• Its continued operation without status signals possible federal scrutiny, especially under the Trump administration’s focus on left-wing extremism.

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3. Trump Administration’s Mass Deportation Campaign

[12:50 – 17:10]

Deportation Numbers and Targets

• Nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants deported so far, with a stated goal of 1 million per year—far surpassing prior administrations (including the Obama and late Biden years).
• Self-deportation incentivized: illegal immigrants offered paid flights home and $1,000 to leave, with DHS stating 2 million have voluntarily departed.

On-the-Ground Reporting: ICE Agents’ New Challenges

• Dramatic 1,000% increase in assaults on ICE agents, many now wearing masks to protect identities after being doxed and harassed by activist groups [16:03].
• Cities with sanctuary laws, like Chicago, have shielded criminals from deportation, with an anecdote of a recent arrestee who assaulted an officer and had previously evaded ICE.

Notable Quotes

• Ginny Terre (Immigration Reporter) [13:16]:
  “Right now we're at 389,000 illegal immigrants deported so far... it's still a huge advance compared to what we've seen under previous administrations.”

• Ginny Terre [16:03]:
  "Right now there is a thousand percent increase in assaults on ICE agents... This is putting not only those agents at risk, but ... their families at risk, who they go home to every day."

• John Bickley [17:00]:
  “Meanwhile, we have some states or cities that are trying to outlaw any sort of masking by these agents to protect their identity—it’s pretty appalling.”

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Memorable Moments

• Kimmel Controversy (Broad Impact): The episode highlights how both left and right are increasingly quick to demand or rebuke deplatformings according to their own interests, but also notes that late-night TV’s declining viewership limits real-world impacts.
• Left-Wing Gun Club Details: The SRA profile provides a rare look at leftist gun culture, usually associated with conservatives, challenging common perceptions and raising questions about extremism on multiple sides.
• ICE’s New Reality: The leap in threats and doxing against ICE agents underlines the heightened volatility around immigration enforcement.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Jimmy Kimmel Suspension: 02:40 – 07:35
• Socialist Rifle Association/Left-Wing Armed Group: 08:10 – 12:47
• Trump Administration Deportation Efforts: 12:50 – 17:10

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Episode Tone and Delivery

• Direct, brisk, and fact-focused, with an occasionally sardonic tone especially in cultural segments.
• Hosts and reporters maintain a right-leaning perspective but feature direct quotations and references to official statements and opposition reactions.
• Notably, the episode uses first-person testimonials and documentary clips to highlight on-the-ground perspectives from both sides of these polarized issues.

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This episode offers a succinct but comprehensive guide to not only what happened in these top news stories, but also why they matter, capturing both the heated rhetoric around free speech and violence and the policy shifts under the renewed Trump administration.

Transcript

[Narrator]

Mike and Alyssa are always trying to outdo each other. When Alyssa got a small water bottle, Mike showed up with a four litre jug. When Mike started gardening, Alyssa started beekeeping.

[John Bickley]

Oh, come on.

[Narrator]

They called a truce for their holiday and used Expedia trip planner to collaborate on all the details of their trip. Once there, Mike still did more laps around the pool.

[Ginny Terre]

Whatever.

[Narrator]

You were made to outdo your holidays. We were made to help organize the competition. Expedia made to travel.

[John Bickley]

ABC cuts off Jimmy Kimmel's mic, putting his show on indefinite hiatus after comments he made about Charlie Kirk's assassination.

[Georgia Howe]

The market is speaking. Conservatives watch TV too, and they found that unacceptable.

[Host/Moderator]

We break down the fallout on both the left and the right.

[John Bickley]

I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Friday, September 19th. This is Morning Wire.

[Host/Moderator]

A Daily Wire exclusive investigation is shining light on a radical group taking up arms under the banner of socialism and transgender activism.

[Georgia Howe]

So socialism is by nature about equality. So that that would be the only kind of gun club I would join, would be a socialist one.

[John Bickley]

And the Trump administration is smashing records for annual deportations. The last three months we had zero.

From millions of people a year.

Zero people enter our country illegally.

[Host/Moderator]

Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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[Host/Moderator]

ABC has suspended late night host Jimmy Kimmel indefinitely for his remarks about Charlie Kirk's assassination. But while many conservatives say this is a just consequence for his statements, the progressives are calling it suppression of free speech.

[John Bickley]

Daily Wire Culture reporter Megan Basham is here now with the fallout. Hey, Megan. So to start, remind our audience exactly what Kimmel said that got his show pulled, at least for now.

Yeah. So Kimmel's comments came on Monday night, days after Charlie Kirk's assassination. And it was at that point that we already had a lot of information about what had motivated Kirk's killer. His political views, his left wing views were very well known by that point. And yet Kimmel said this.

[Georgia Howe]

We had some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.

[John Bickley]

So again, by that night, we had official reports from Utah Governor Spencer Cox and from the FBI in which they described Robinson Kirk's killer as deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology. And we knew by then that the killer had described Kirk's conservative views as, quote, unquote, full of hate. We also know that he was in a relationship with his trans identifying roommate. And yet on Tuesday night, even after that backlash, Kimmel doubled down, painting the right as the threat and mocking the idea that anybody on the left is dangerous at all, despite the well documented left wing violence that we've seen in recent years. So to be quite blunt here, Kimmel made false statements that he certainly should have known were false at the time that he made them. And that was immediately in the aftermath of Kirk's death. So you can understand why a lot of people were offended.

Right. The information about the suspect was quite clearly presented by officials by Monday. And so on Wednesday, we see ABC take action.

Well, we saw them take action after some heavy pressure from the media companies that own these local affiliate ABCs that air Kimmel show. So on Wednesday, Nextstar Media Group, which carries 23 ABC affiliates and announced that they would be dropping Kimmel's show. Sinclair Broadcast Group, which is another one of those major affiliate companies, announced that they were expecting an apology to the Kirk family and they wanted to see ABC make a donation to Turning Point USA before they would agree to put Kimmel back on the air. Tonight, instead of Kimmel, their ABC affiliates along with Next Stars are going to be airing a tribute to Kirk rather than Kimmel's show. Now, behind the scenes, ABC did reportedly try to get that apology from Kimmel, but he refused, feeling that he had nothing to apologize for. And not only was he not going to apologize, he was reportedly planning to triple down and take even further aim at Donald Trump supporters during his monologue on Wednesday night. But rather than let that happen, abc, which is of course owned by Disney, decided to bench him and avoid any further political fallout.

Got it. So what about the fcc? What role did it play? Because there's been a lot of accusations coming from celebrities, Ben Stiller, even Barack Obama, that this was a result of government coercion, not a voluntary choice by abc.

Yeah. So as this was playing out, FCC chair Brendan Carr pointed out that these broadcast networks rely on licenses from the federal government to operate, and that's different than print media or, say, cable networks. So he went on Fox and talked about that and how those rules require the broadcasters to avoid knowingly making false or defamatory statements.

[Georgia Howe]

With that license comes a unique obligation to operate in the public interest. And over the years, the FCC walked away from enforcing that public interest obligation. I don't think we're better off as a country for.

[John Bickley]

But that said, there's no evidence that Carr or the FCC took any formal action against ABC or against Kimmel. And that does contrast with the Biden administration, which we know did take some form formal actions against conservative media. Looking at the big picture, though, I'd say that nextstar refusing to carry Kimmel and, you know, Sinclair also refusing to carry Kimmel is a much bigger factor here than anything Brendan Carr said. And I'll tell you, John, I did hear one interesting comment from a friend of mine, and he actually said that he doesn't see either Colbert's cancellation or Kimmel's suspension as any sort of major victory for the right. Because quite simply, very few people watch these shows and they're reportedly losing tens of millions of dollars. So, you know, in the big picture, whether Kimmel comes back, and it's rumored that he will, it's not going to affect the political landscape that much.

There's no doubt that his shows don't draw the audiences they once did. Meghan, thank you so much for reporting.

Yep, my pleasure.

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[John Bickley]

President Trump said on Wednesday that he's designating Antifa as a terrorist group. The Department of Homeland Security said ICE officers have faced increased assaults after being doxed by antifa, particularly in cities like Portland.

[Host/Moderator]

The Department of Justice under the Biden administration focused heavily on what ID called right wing domestic terrorism. And now the Trump administration is signaling that it will focus on radical left wing groups. Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak investigated one such group called the Socialist Rifle association, and he joins us now. So Luke, what did you find out about this group?

[Luke Rosiak]

Hey, Georgia. So the Socialist Rifle association was founded in 2019 and within a year it counted 10,000 comrades. It operates through state based chapters across the country and says it educates and trains leftists on the use of firearms to protect against fascists. The group was founded by two transgender men, one of whom goes by she It. According to an internal survey, 1/3 of the members are anarchists, 1/3 are Marxist Leninists or Maoists, and 1/3 are LGBTQ. It gives out membership cards with Karl Marx's face on them. But perhaps more than anything, it is wrapped up with transgender politics. Four of its 13 national leaders go by they pronouns. Here's a clip from a documentary about the group's Maryland chapter.

[John Bickley]

I am a non binary trans femme.

[Georgia Howe]

Commie gun owner and I like video games and martial arts. The Trump presidency and seeing how like Trump emboldened literal Nazis, literal fascists. Our government thrives on inequality and it is a white patriarchal system. It is racist. But for the first time in decades we had a president who was not afraid to speak out against some of our biggest social justice movements that were happening in America at the time, which really emboldened the bigots. It emboldened those that follow fascist ideologies and has kind of kicked them into action. And I believe a box has been open that we're not going to be able to shut.

[Host/Moderator]

Now. Has this group actually been linked to any terror incidents or near misses?

[Luke Rosiak]

A Daily Wire review of federal court records found that membership in the Socialist Rifle association is a common link among four high profile incidents of political violence a couple months ago. If you remember, nearly a dozen people, many of them transgender, were charged with committing an armed assault against an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas. Benjamin Haniel Song, who was charged with shooting a police officer in the neck in that incident, was allegedly a Socialist Rifle association member. Two separate instances of firebombing Tesla dealerships, one the day of President Trump's inauguration, were committed by Socialist Rifle Association Members, according to prosecutors. And then there was a member who fought alongside foreign terrorist organizations and then said he would pay people to identify conservative participants in the January 6 Capitol protest, saying, we will, quote, handle this ourselves instead of going to police. He called for, quote, stabbing Nazis.

[Host/Moderator]

Now, there has been some speculation that Charlie Kirk's alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson, was potentially involved in some trans Reddit groups. And some of those groups had some very militant language. He was also dating a transgender person. Has he or his roommate slash partner been associated with this group at all?

[Luke Rosiak]

Well, the Socialist Rifle association told me that Robinson is not a member of. It declined to say whether his boyfriend, Lance Twiggs, was citing confidentiality policies. But the group does have a chapter in Utah. On social media, that chapter offers, quote, queer friendly firearms education. It asks members to support Arthur Gamboa, an anti racist accused of murder, and advertises a poster that says, quote, I will die fighting for this cause. On Sunday, by the way, the Maryland chapter is holding an event for, quote, Arab folks whose poster shows people dressed like Osama bin Laden and Hamas terrorists shooting weapons.

[Host/Moderator]

Now, what do we know about the group's finances? Are they funded by anyone?

[Luke Rosiak]

It's structured as a nonprofit incorporated in Kansas, but its federal tax exempt status was revoked after it failed to file paperwork with the IRS for years. It's still been operating. So that's one avenue that perhaps the federal government will look at.

[Host/Moderator]

Well, I wouldn't be surprised if the Trump administration takes a very close look at this group. Luke, thanks for reporting.

[Luke Rosiak]

Thank you.

[Host/Moderator]

According to a new report by the Daily Wire, the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign is surging with nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants already removed from the country.

[John Bickley]

Joining us now with the exclusive is Daily Wire's new immigration reporter, Ginny Terre. Ginny, great to have you on the morning show for the first time.

[Ginny Terre]

Thank you so much for having me.

[John Bickley]

So first, how close is the Trump administration to carrying out its goal of 1 million deportations a year?

[Ginny Terre]

Right. So they've set this lofty goal of 1 million deportations per year, which has never been done before. Right now we're at 389,000 illegal immigrants deported so far under this administration. While that's not close yet to 1 million, it's still a huge advance compared to what we've seen under previous administrations. We actually are seeing this even exceed what was President Obama's years, which he was described as the deporter in chief. It's also exceeded President Biden's final year in office. And it shows that The Trump administration is going to continue to ramp up the effort. This is picking up the pace right now with that. The Trump administration has hired 10,000 new immigration agents. That's their goal right now. And so that will definitely help reach their goal. But in a recent conversation with the acting ICE director, Todd Lyons, he told us that, if anything, the efforts by the Trump administration to encourage self deportations, which they've done by incentivizing illegal immigrants to leave on their own, by paying for their commercial flights home and giving them $1,000 to leave, that we will reach that number, certainly. And they've already seen so far, according to DHS, 2 million of those.

[John Bickley]

Now, you've also just reported on this case in Chicago where an illegal immigrant got shot after he hit a law enforcement officer. Can you tell us about that story?

[Ginny Terre]

Right, so this individual actually came into the US Illegally. He was snuck in as what's known as a got away. So there was never any record of him coming into the country. ICE has enhanced their operations in Chicago. They saw this guy, he dragged an officer after hitting him with his vehicle, which right now is unfortunately common. A lot of these assaults are happening on ICE agents that are out there carrying out this mass deportation campaign. But not only did this guy come here illegally, he was previously shielded from deportation. According to our sources in ice, he was shielded from deportation under the Biden administration, which did so even though he had a 2013 arrest for reckless driving and similar crimes within Chicago. The reason that he likely got away with this, according to our sources, is because of the sanctuary laws there that protect illegal immigrants from getting nabbed by ice. And they're protecting essentially criminals. In this case, we see this person got away with this. And then not only that, but the Biden administration said, you can stay here, you're allowed here. The Trump administration is obviously changing the tune of how ICE operates in this country and is trying to get him out.

[John Bickley]

Unfortunately, that case is a familiar story at this point. Can you tell us more about what these ICE agents are up against when it does come to this uptick in assaults, as you've mentioned?

[Ginny Terre]

Right. So right now there is a thousand percent increase in assaults on ICE agents. This is why it's important to understand the reason that these agents are out there wearing masks, they're protecting their identities, because not only are people going out following them on their arrest operations, there's people who are coming up to them, who are livestreaming the arrests, who are taking photos of their faces or trying to do so, and also even following them in their private lives. So this is putting not only those agents at risk, but it's also putting their families at risk, who, who they go home to every day. And so they are up against big organizations, left wing groups that are organizing, going out onto the streets like we saw in Los Angeles very recently over the summer. And they're, you know, very capable of doxing these agents, assaulting them and of course, tampering their operations.

[John Bickley]

Meanwhile, we have some states or cities that are trying to outlaw any sort of masking by these agents to protect their identity is pretty, pretty appalling. Jenny, thank you so much for reporting.

[Ginny Terre]

Thank you.

[Host/Moderator]

Thanks for waking up with us. And if you're watching on YouTube, please like and subscribe. We'll be back later this evening with more news you need to know.

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