ISTANBUL

The US vice president said Wednesday that President Donald Trump was joking when he remarked that he "hates" his political opponents at a memorial service for Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who was killed earlier this month.

“I think the president was joking and I think it’s interesting if you go back and watch the full speech,” JD Vance told NewsNation, a conservative outlet. “What the president was trying to do in his very humorous and very unique way was to highlight how hard it is for us to forgive our enemies.”

At Kirk’s memorial in Arizona on Sunday, Trump said: “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry.”

Addressing how widow Erika Kirk said she forgave the man accused of killing her husband, Trump added: "Erika, you can talk to me and the whole group, but maybe they can convince me that that’s not right, but I can’t stand my opponent.”

Trump critics, however, have decried what they call the president’s habit of trying to walk back controversial remarks by claiming that he was “only joking,” such as calling former President Barack Obama in 2016 the “founder” of terrorist group ISIS (Daesh), then excusing the comments as “sarcasm,” and numerous other examples.

Vance, also addressing the controversy surrounding ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who was suspended for a week for comments about Republican rhetoric in the wake of the Kirk killing, criticized the remarks, saying: “It wasn’t a joke; it was straight-up disinformation.”

Kimmel, 56, was suspended last week after accusing Republicans of twisting the accused killer’s background for political gain. Returning to the air Tuesday, he said it was never his “intention to make light of the murder of a young man.”

Vance said of Kimmel’s return monologue: “He didn’t actually say sorry to Charlie Kirk or his family … He accused Kirk’s murderer of being a … right-wing American. I really wish he had apologized for it.”

In his return episode, Kimmel also criticized Trump, saying the president “made it very clear he wants to see me and the hundreds of people who work here fired from our jobs.”

Trump has repeatedly called for the firing of Kimmel and other television personalities who find fault with him and his administration, with his critics calling the president intolerant of freedom of speech.

Kimmel’s return broadcast drew nearly 6.3 million viewers, the show’s highest ratings in a decade, according to Disney-owned ABC, even as some 20% of ABC stations owned by two companies refused to air the show.