Andrew Schulz and Akash Singh Condemn Jimmy Kimmel’s Suspension
There was an expectation that the right wing and right wing-adjacent podcasters would stay quiet on Jimmy Kimmel’s forced and indefinite removal from ABC. Despite their constant yammering about free speech and comedy, taking any sort of meaningful stance against the Trump administration isn’t in the usual wheelhouse of figures like Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh.
Sure, one time Schulz said that he regretted voting for Donald Trump after the first Epstein allegations surfaced. But the hosts of Flagrant are better known for talking for two hours on a topic they’re completely uneducated on, rather than their moral consistency. Both Schulz and Singh exceeded low expectations on Thursday when they condemned Kimmel’s removal.
On Wednesday’s taping of Flagrant, a solo Singh followed up the scheduled programming to discuss the then-breaking news of Kimmel’s removal. “We just found out that Jimmy Kimmel got fired after we finished recording. We wanted to address it. First things first, we have to address Charlie Kirk getting murdered,” Singh said. “Nobody here condones that behavior. That’s horrendous. You cannot kill anybody for what they say. So, just so you know our beliefs.”
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Singh then broke down the sequence of events that led to Kimmel’s removal to the rest of the podcast panel, concluding that it “seemed like a big attack on free speech.”
“We’ve been pretty staunchly in favor of free speech,” Singh continued. “And it is funny to watch right-wing people just become left-wing people. I said something about how you’re a snowflake if you agree with this. Somebody was like, ‘You clearly don’t even know what the First Amendment means.’ And that’s exactly what left-wing people used to tell me. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences. So, y’all have just switched.”
He took it one step further by adding, “In terms of censorship, freedom of speech is more under attack now, honestly, than I think it has ever been. I don’t know if that’s me being hyperbolic.”
This might not be the worst attack on free speech in this country — the history of the U.S. is long and vile — but Singh is correct in highlighting just how extreme Trump’s authoritarian takeover of the media is.
Schulz, while not present for Wednesday’s taping, also posted a statement to his Instagram story about Kimmel’s removal. Schulz’s post read:
“Left: Fascism is wrong! Unless you kill our political opponents, then we’ll celebrate it.
Right: Cancel Culture is wrong! Unless you cancel the shows of our political opponents, then we’ll celebrate it.
The vast majority of Americans that I speak to are repulsed by this behavior yet there’s almost no representation of this sentiment in media (independent or mainstream). How is that possible?”
He added in a following story, “Do you think Charlie Kirk would support canceling people for exercising their free speech?”
There are some holes to poke in Schulz’s statement, but the sentiment stands. I won’t applaud men whose worldviews and vein of comedy are in genuine opposition to nearly every single one of my personal beliefs. Schulz and Singh don’t get credit or applause for recognizing a spade as a spade. Still, I won’t deny that it’s important for people who are popular on the right to rebuke Trump’s media takeover. Because it won’t just stop at censoring late-night show hosts. Anyone who opposes the administration will be vulnerable to job loss and political persecution.
Just be careful boys. First, you’re defending free speech. Next, you might find yourselves considering the merits of feminism. Moral integrity is a slippery slope.
