Pritzker quotes 'Andor' while cheering Kimmel's ABC return

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) quoted the popular Disney+ TV show “Andor” while cheering comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s return to his late-night ABC show.

“‘Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that,’” Pritzker said in a post Monday evening on the social platform X, referencing the Disney+ show’s 12th episode of its first season.

“Looking forward to seeing Jimmy back on the air,” he added.

Pritzker’s quotation of “Andor,” a show with a theme of rebellion against oppressive forces, is notable considering that both ABC and Disney+ are owned by the Walt Disney Company.

Disney has now said Kimmel will be back Tuesday after pulling him off television last week. The company said in a statement it removed Kimmel from air “to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for the country.”

Kimmel had been kicked off television in the wake of saying last Monday that conservatives were attempting to score “political points” off the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and joking that President Trump was mourning his passing “like a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish.”

The comments garnered Kimmel an intense rebuke from Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chair, who said the comedian should face punishment from the network.

In the wake of Kirk’s death, there have been intense debates over his legacy and the limits of free speech, inflaming already heightened tensions between the American left and right amid the second Trump administration.

“We the people must never accept government threats to our freedom of speech. Efforts by leaders to pressure artists, journalists, and companies with retaliation for their speech strike at the heart of what it means to live in a free country,” a recent American Civil Liberties Union letter signed by hundreds of stars and creators reads.