ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel and his wife, executive producer, and co-head writer Molly McNearney, stopped by the Thursday episode of the We Can Do Hard Things podcast to look back on Kimmel’s recent suspension. While the words “Charlie Kirk” were never mentioned once during the nearly 70-minute episode, Kimmel and McNearney claimed they told their children that President Trump was the one responsible for his suspension.
McNearney was telling a long-winded story of how they broke the news to their young children, “So, they seemed like it was gonna be good and it occurred to me, 'Oh boy, this is not gonna be good.' And Jimmy let them know, he said, 'Our show is—my show has been suspended.' And our daughter immediately burst into tears and she said, ‘I'll sell my Labubus.’ And we told her, yeah, you should. No, we did not. We told her, ‘No, you don't need to do that. You don't need to sell the Labubus’ and our son asked if the president had done this, and we looked at each other, and we didn't quite know how to answer that question.”
Kimmel then interjected to claim that, “I think I said yes.”
McNearney then continued, “We did. We actually both said yes at the exact same time. We said yes, he did, and it's weird, you know, because you don't want your kids to—“
It was ABC that suspended Kimmel because it was getting fierce blowback from affiliates and was worried that he would inflame the situation by insisting he did nothing wrong when he said, “We hit 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.”
Later, McNearney claimed that incidents such as the suspensions have led her to cut off ties with certain family members. She declared, “I mean, I bought my dad a Rush Limbaugh tie in high school. I voted Republican straight ticket, and that's what I was told to do. And then I left St. Louis, Missouri, and I met people from different backgrounds, and I started to understand different things and different needs and different people, and there's so there's like a little bit of sympathy I have for people in my family that I feel are kind of being deliberately misinformed every day and they've—”
Ironically, Kimmel interrupted with, “Not kind of.”
McNearney took Kimmel’s rephrasing in stride and continued, “Yeah, they're deliberately being misinformed every day, and they believe it, but it hurts me so much because of the personal relationship I now have where my husband is out there fighting this man. And to me, them voting for Trump is them not voting for my husband and me and our family, and I unfortunately have kind of lost relationships with people in my family because of it.”
One of Kimmel’s favorite themes is that Republicans aren’t good Christians, which is apparently an idea that runs in the family, “It’s like this is not just Republican versus Democrat for me anymore. It is to me. It's family values, and it's really hard for me because I grew up believing in these Christian ideals of taking care of the sick and taking care of the poor. And I don't see that happening with this Republican Party, and so it's, I feel like I'm kind of in constant conflict, and I'm angry all the time, which isn't healthy at all, but I, like, personalize everything now when I see these terrible stories every day I'm immediately mad at certain aunts, uncles, cousins who put him in power.”
She further added, “It's definitely caused a strain. I've definitely pulled in closer with the family that I feel more aligned with, and I hate that this has happened, you know, it feels silly, you know, part of me goes, ‘Don't let politics get in the way.’ But to me this isn't politics. It's, it's truly values and we just, we're not aligned anymore.”
Thanksgiving at the Kimmel house sounds less fun than a taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Here is a transcript for the October 6 show:
We Can Do Hard Things
11/6/2025
MOLLY MCNEARNEY: So, they seemed like it was gonna be good and it occurred to me, “Oh boy, this is not gonna be good.” And Jimmy let them know, he said, “Our show is—my show has been suspended.” And our daughter immediately burst into tears and she said, “I'll sell my Labubus.” And we told her, yeah, you should. No, we did not. We told her, “No, you don't need to do that. You don't need to sell the Labubus” and our son asked if the president had done this, and we looked at each other, and we didn't quite know how to answer that question.
JIMMY KIMMEL: I think I said yes.
MCNEARNEY: We did. We actually both said yes at the exact same time. We said yes, he did, and it's weird, you know, because you don't want your kids to—
KIMMEL: It’s certainly not an experience I had with my parents.
…
MCNEARNEY: I mean, I bought my dad a Rush Limbaugh tie in high school. I voted Republican straight ticket, and that's what I was told to do. And then I left St. Louis, Missouri, and I met people from different backgrounds, and I started to understand different things and different needs and different people and there's so there's like a little bit of sympathy I have for people in my family that I feel are kind of being deliberately misinformed every day and they've—
KIMMEL: Not kind of.
MCNEARNEY: Yeah, they're deliberately being misinformed every day, and they believe it, but it hurts me so much because of the personal relationship I now have where my husband is out there fighting this man. And to me, them voting for Trump is them not voting for my husband and me and our family and I unfortunately have kind of lost relationships with people in my family because of it.
It’s like this is not just Republican versus Democrat for me anymore. It is to me. It's family values, and it's really hard for me because I grew up believing in these Christian ideals of taking care of the sick and taking care of the poor. And I don't see that happening with this Republican Party, and so it's, I feel like I'm kind of in constant conflict, and I'm angry all the time, which isn't healthy at all, but I, like, personalize everything now when I see these terrible stories every day I'm immediately mad at certain aunts, uncles, cousins who put him in power and it's really hard and my it's—I wish I could like deprogram myself in some way, but I get really angry. And I sent, I've sent many emails to family, like, right before the election saying, “I'm begging you. Here's the 10 reasons not to vote for this guy. Please don't.”
And I either got ignored by 90 percent of them or got truly insane responses from a few. It's definitely caused a strain. I've definitely pulled in closer with the family that I feel more aligned with, and I hate that this has happened, you know, it feels silly, you know, part of me goes, “Don't let politics get in the way.” But to me this isn't politics. It's, it's truly values and we just, we're not aligned anymore.
