Trump ally James Comer defends Kimmel's free speech after 'widow' joke, says we shouldn't cancel comedy

"But at the end of the day, he has a right to do that."

Saying he is a fan of comedy, particularly comics like Dave Chappelle, the Kentucky Republican argued that, if anything, cracking down on comedians has been an activity associated with the political left in recent years.

"All the comedians, and I know a lot of them, feel like many people, usually from the left, have kind of canceled comedy, and I think that's unfortunate," Comer said. 

"But hopefully Kimmel can proceed with jokes that don't pertain to assassinations or things like that, because I think that gets a lot of people jacked up, and I think that contributes to the rise in political violence that we're seeing."

"It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination," Kimmel said. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and to ABC but did not immediately receive responses.

Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.