The White House responded to a petition calling for an apology and removal of "Jimmy Kimmel Live" after the show featured a joke last October about killing Chinese people to avoid paying the U.S. debt to China.
The petition was started after the October 16 broadcast of the ABC late night show featured Kimmel asking a group of kids. The Kids Table segments routinely feature Kimmel getting unscripted responses from kids about the issues of the day. Big question of that day: how to repay the $1.3 trillion the U.S. owes China. A little boy named Braxton commented "Kill everyone in China.
A line on the petition reads. "The kids might not know anything better. However, Jimmy Kimmel and ABC's management are adults. They had a choice not to air this racist program, which promotes racial hatred. The program is totally unacceptable and it must be cut. A sincere apology must be issued. It is extremely distasteful and this is the same rhetoric used in Nazi Germany against Jewish people."
The White House noted that ABC and Kimmel apologized for the joke and said that free speech protects the show, and the federal government "cannot force ABC to remove this show."
A portion of the White House response:
"The parties involved have already apologized independently. Jimmy Kimmel has apologized on-air, and issued a written apology. ABC has removed the skit from future broadcasts, taken the clip down from online platforms, and detailed several changes in its programming review process in response to this incident. You can find more about Jimmy Kimmel's apology here, and ABC's apology here.
"On a broader level, as the President has stated publicly, the United States welcomes the continuing peaceful rise of China. The comments you are writing about do not reflect mainstream views of China in the United States.
"The Federal government cannot force ABC to remove this show. The First Amendment of the Constitution protects free speech, even if individuals might personally find it offensive or distasteful. It may be upsetting when people say things we might personally disagree with, but the principle of protected free speech is an important part of who we are as a nation."
