Jimmy Kimmel returned to TV last night, delivering a powerful, at times emotional opening monologue about free speech and the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine the First Amendment.

Tuesday night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live was the first to air since last week, when ABC abruptly announced that it had suspended the show indefinitely in the wake of comments the late-night host made on September 15 about conservatives’ reaction to the death of Christian nationalist activist and Republican organizer Charlie Kirk. The decision reportedly came after media companies Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nextstar, under thinly veiled public pressure from FCC chair Brendan Carr, announced they would preempt the show on the ABC affiliate stations they own across the country.

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Following widespread public outcry about the decision, ABC parent company Disney announced this week that Kimmel’s show would return on Tuesday night — though the right-leaning Sinclair, which is reportedly exploring a merger that would require FCC approval, said it would continue to preempt the show.

During Tuesday night’s opening monologue, Kimmel thanked supporters who “cared enough… to make your voices heard so that mine can be heard,” as well as conservatives like Ben Shapiro, Clay Travis, Candace Owens, Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz, who also spoke out against his show’s suspension and the violation of free speech it represented.

“Even though I don’t agree with many of those people on most subjects — some of the things they say even make me want to throw up — it takes courage for them to speak out against this administration, and they did and they deserve credit for it,” Kimmel said.

The host choked up several times when addressing Kirk’s death and its impact on his family. He also took a moment to clarify his September 15 comments, in which he joked that following Kirk’s death, the “MAGA gang” had reached “new lows” in its attempts to characterize the shooter “as anything other than one of them” and to “score political points” from the tragedy.

“I do want to make something clear because it’s important to me as a human,” an emotional Kimmel said on Tuesday night, “and that is you understand that it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. I don’t think there’s anything funny about it.”

“Nor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what was obviously a deeply disturbed individual. That was really the opposite of the point I was trying to make. But I understand that to some, that felt either ill-timed or unclear or maybe both. And for those who think I did point a finger, I get why you’re upset. If the situation was reversed, there’s a good chance I’d have felt the same way.”

“I don’t think the murderer who shot Charlie Kirk represents anyone,” he added. “This was a sick person who believed violence was a solution and it isn’t.”

For all his good intentions, it’s notable that Kimmel failed to acknowledge that the situation is, in fact, reversed.

In the immediate aftermath of Kirk’s murder, right-wing talking heads and Republican lawmakers began circulating and repeating conspiracy theories about the shooter’s “transgender ideology,” while the president explicitly blamed “the radical left” for Kirk’s death even before a suspect was apprehended. During a September 17 appearance on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime, Vice President JD Vance explicitly blamed “left-wing political radicalization” for Kirk’s death.

The president and his allies have signaled their intention to use the assassination as a pretext to crack down on organizations that fund progressive causes. And the anti-trans disinformation has increased exponentially. In that same Jesse Watters interview, Vance suggested that he considers “the militant transgender movement” to be a “domestic terrorist threat.” And the same day, journalist Ken Klippenstein published a report based on conversations with two unnamed national security officials who said that the Trump administration is discussing a plan in which the FBI would consider transgender suspects as a subset of its “Nihilistic Violent Extremists” threat category, giving the administration political and media cover to target trans people.

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