Hi, Brian Lairer here.

Up next, Brian Lairor Weekend,

three of our favorite segments from the week,

packaged together for you to listen to on the weekend.

So enjoy, and I'll see you back on the radio Monday at 10 a.m.

on WNYC and WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. I want to play a few clips from Jimmy Kimmel's monologue last night as he returned to ABC after his suspension over something he said after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. And we'll talk in this segment for a few minutes with a guest who works full-time to advance free speech rights on both the

left and the right. Can there be a single standard that Americans can largely agree upon on campuses

and the Trump administration and anywhere else? First, here's Kimmel's explanation of the line that got

him in so much trouble on the night after the murder, when Kimmel said,

quote, 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, unquote. Of course, it seems from the

evidence that the shooter was not MAGA,

and if Kimball seems to suggest there that he was convinced the shooter was MAGA,

here's how he addressed that last night,

beginning with what he had posted before that monologue after Charlie Kirk was killed.

I posted a message on Instagram on the Charlie Kirk was killed.

I posted a message on Instagram on the day he was killed, sending love to his family,

and asking for compassion, and I meant it. I still do.

Nor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what it was obviously a deeply disturbed individual.

That was really the opposite of the point I was

trying to make. But I understand that to some that felt either ill-timed or unclear or maybe both.

...