Morning Joe Defends Kimmel Widow Joke, Mocks Melania's 'Crocodile Tears,' 'Bad Faith'

On Tuesday’s Morning Joe, the panel rode to the defense of Jimmy Kimmel, embracing his claim that his “expectant widow” line about Melania Trump was merely an age-gap “joke”— then turning on Donald Trump and the First Lady for objecting.

Here was Kimmel’s original line, delivered Thursday night:

“And of course, our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania—so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”

Melania Trump responded on social media, calling it “hateful and violent rhetoric… intended to divide our country.” President Trump labeled it “far beyond the pale,” and called for action by ABC and Disney. As our Tim Graham has pointed out, after two assassination attempts on Donald Trump prior to Kimmel's “joke,” invoking widowhood carries a far darker implication—one the panel showed no interest in considering.

Kimmel insisted the remark was harmless:

“It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am… It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination.”

Morning Joe bought that framing wholesale. Co-host Willie Geist dismissed the backlash as “so much bad faith,” suggesting critics were simply trying to get Kimmel fired.

Host Joe Scarborough sneered at the reaction as “such crocodile tears.” He said "crocodile tears" three times.

Yet Scarborough repeatedly conceded the remark crossed a line he himself wouldn’t approach. Three separate times, he said he wouldn’t have made the joke, describing it as “a little tough”—before excusing it as typical roast humor tied to so-called “autumn-spring relationships.”

So Scarborough admits the line was out of bounds—then minimizes it and attacks those objecting.

Mika Brzezinski tried to normalize Kimmel's crack by noting there have been jokes over the years about Joe Biden’s age. That comparison doesn’t hold. Age jokes are one thing; calling Melania an “expectant widow” is another category entirely.

Back in 2017, did anyone tell Mika to stop the "crocodile tears" and just accept Trump talking about her "bleeding facelift" as a moment for freedom of speech?

The double standard is glaring. If a conservative comedian had called Dr. Jill an “expectant widow,” Morning Joe and the liberal media at large would have been up in arms.

Context makes the panel’s posture even harder to defend.

And when it comes to presidential age, remember: Morning Joe is the same show that forcefully rejected concerns about Biden’s age. Regular guest Eugene Robinson assured viewers Biden was “sharp as a tack.” Scarborough himself famously declared just months before the debate debacle that this was “the best Biden ever—and f-you if you don’t believe it.”

But now, age is fair game—so long as it serves to defend an ally and brand his critics as acting in bad faith.

Here's the transcript.

MS NOW
Morning Joe
4/28/26
6:36 am EDT

JIMMY KIMMEL: And of course, our First Lady Melania is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow. 

WILLIE GEIST: So that was on Thursday, a couple of days before the event on Saturday. 

The First Lady responded to that joke, writing in part on social media, "Kimmel's hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. People like Kimmel should not have the opportunity to enter our homes."

President Trump adding on Truth Social, "This is something far beyond the pale. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC."

While ABC has yet to comment, Kimmel responded last night. 

KIMMEL: It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he's almost 80 and she's younger than I am. It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination. And they know that. I've been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence. 

GEIST: So, Joe, that was Kimmel last night. You saw the timeline. The parody roast he did was on Thursday night, saying he explained it as an age gap. There's just so much bad faith here, people using a moment to --

JOE SCARBOROUGH: -- Yeah,

GEIST: -- hopefully, they don't like Jimmy Kimmel, they don't like the way he talks about Donald Trump every night, maybe get him fired. Last time, those stations and ABC and Disney did listen for a time, and then he was put back on the air. We'll see how they hold up under pressure this time. 

SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, such crocodile tears. You know, if they would sit back and just let things take their natural course, there would be enough criticism of Kimmel from their side, but such crocodile tears . . . So again, crocodile tears there. 

Willie, you know, would I have said it? No, I wouldn't have said something like that about any president. But guess what? That's what happens at these roasts . . . The millions of roasts that, I bet you  Donald Trump went to, knew that any time there was a relationship where, what do they call them, autumn-spring relationships, where you have a president who's almost 80, you have a First Lady who's younger than Jimmy Kimmel, they're always those sort of jokes. 

Would I have said it? No, I wouldn't have said it. Would you have said it? No. Would Mika? No, none of us would say that. But comedians, especially at these type of events, which we weren't having, comedians usually make those sort of jokes that make you go, eh, that's a little, a little tough. 

And it's happened also with the White House Correspondents' Dinner through the years. So, again, the joke was about his age. The joke wasn't about anything else. 

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: And I believe there might have been a few jokes about Joe Biden's age. I'm just saying.

SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, a few jokes about Joe Biden's age through the years. So again, the crocodile tears are a bit too much, even for those of us who would never say something like that or want anybody else to make a joke like that. 

But it was, at the end of the day, a joke about his age.