Jenna Bush Hager Defends Jimmy Kimmel While Praising His 'Beautiful' Monologue After Suspension: 'He Didn't Mean to Hurt Anybody'

Jenna Bush Hager came to Jimmy Kimmel's defense.

After the talk show host's nighttime series was temporarily suspended by ABC, Bush Hager reflected on his return to TV.

Kimmel addressed his controversial comments about Charlie Kirk in an emotional monologue the evening of Tuesday, September 23, which the mom-of-three praised as "beautifully done."

"I long for a country where...people that have different opinions sit at the same table and have conversations," she expressed. "And he actually said that. He said, 'I have people in my family that don't believe the same things that I do.'"

Guest co-host Sheinelle Jones agreed that a "clash of ideas is healthy."

"You can have a healthy debate. We don't have to agree, but we don't have to come at each other's throats," she asserted. "I think, right now, it's almost at a fever pitch...my friend always used to say, 'Raise the vocabulary, lower the volume.' Let's all do that."

"It was as if he read that. That's what he did," Bush Hager said. "In a beautiful way, he said that whatever he said was misunderstood. He didn't mean to hurt anybody...he was emotional. We work in a job where you say something, you're like, 'Oh my gosh, that's not what I meant. I didn't mean to hurt anybody.'"

The media personality cited "freedom of speech" and "making jokes about people in power" as part of what the United States of America was founded upon. She recalled when her grandfather George H.W. Bush lost the election, he invited Dana Carvey to the White House to lighten the mood. Carvey played the late president on Saturday Night Live, and instead of expressing any ill will toward the comedian, he opened the doors for him.

"I remember reading stuff about him as a little kid, like, 'Oh, gosh. That hurts. That's not the man that I know,'" Jenna remembered. "And that's part of the job."

When George lost, he was reportedly "devastated" and felt like he "let down his staff." In an attempt to boost their spirits, "he had Dana come to the White House to make fun of him...so that he could cheer up his staff who were disappointed."

"We laughed hysterically at some of it. I think that's part of it, too. You can't take yourself so seriously...." the Today host said. "I feel so lucky to work at a show where people that have different opinions and believe different things watch, come together."

Jimmy issued a public apology on Tuesday evening after he said the "MAGA gang" was "desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them" and tried to "score political points from it."

"It's important to me as a human, and that is, you understand that it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. I don't think there's anything funny about it," the host declared. "Nor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what 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. And for those who think I did, point a finger, I get why you're upset. If the situation was reversed, there's a good chance I'd have felt the same way."