Jimmy Kimmel is back on air at ABC, but the fallout from his brief suspension by Disney is far from over.
Vice President J.D. Vance recently spoke with News Nation about Kimmel’s return and his first monologue back, and it apparently touched a nerve with The Ringer’s Sal Iacono.
Iacono is, of course, also Kimmel’s cousin and a longtime former writer on Jimmy Kimmel Live. So when Vance made what “Cousin Sal” believed to be an untrue remark in the interview, he took to social media to call out the vice president directly.
In particular, Iacono took issue with the idea that Kimmel misrepresented the political leanings of Charlie Kirk’s killer. This continues to be the key portion of Kimmel’s response to Kirk’s murder. In a monologue that went viral and ultimately caused him to be taken off air, Kimmel called Kirk’s killer “one of them” while chiding the Trump administration for its response to the assassination.
Speaking with News Nation this week, Vance stated that Kimmel misrepresented the killer as part of the Make America Great Again movement. And Iacono strongly disagreed.
“Jimmy didn’t say this at all and you know it,” Cousin Sal wrote on X. “If you can prove otherwise, I promise I will buy you the sexiest sofa I can find,” he added in reference to a popular meme about the vice president.
Iacono didn’t stop there, continuing to insult the vice president personally:
“You really should embrace free speech more. It’s the very reason you still have a job after referring to your current boss as “America’s Hitler”.
Hey @JDVance…couple things.
1) Jimmy didn’t say this at all and you know it. If you can prove otherwise, I promise I will buy you the sexiest sofa I can find.
2) You really should embrace free speech more. It’s the very reason you still have a job after referring to your…
— Cousin Sal (@TheCousinSal) September 25, 2025
Iacono certainly is not alone in his belief that Kimmel’s original comments were misrepresented. Regardless, commentators from both sides of the aisle stepped up to defend Kimmel when Disney suspended him last week.
At The Ringer, Iacono’s longtime friend and co-host Bill Simmons called the efforts by the Federal Communications Commission to sway Disney’s decision on Kimmel “censorship.”
And while it may seem futile to post responses on social media when the federal government or a corporation as big as Disney is involved, Vance frequently engages with critics on X. It would not be surprising if Vance were to see Iacono’s post and respond to Kimmel’s cousin directly.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.