ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel show aired a “death threat” against Donald Trump made by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a Trump staffer charged on CNN today.

“If he wasn’t Ted Cruz, he probably would be reported and investigated by the Secret Service,” Karen Giorno, identified by CNN as Southeast regional director for the Trump campaign, told Jake Tapper.

“It should offend every American. This is a presidential race,” said the staffer of a GOP candidate who boasted at a rally two months ago, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

“This is not a time to be joking about the front-runner and essentially running him over and causing him harm or death,” Giorno continued.

Related Story Jimmy Kimmel To Ted Cruz:

Last night, Cruz made his first visit to Kimmel’s ABC late-night show. He followed a guest who had showed viewers how to scare a pal on April Fool’s Day by taping a photo of Donald Trump to the back of the pal’s car, covering the back-up camera. When Kimmel asked Cruz if he liked President Obama or Trump better, the candidate replied, “If I were in my car and getting ready to reverse, and saw Donald in the backup camera, I’m not confident which pedal I’d push.”

This afternoon, Cruz communications director Alice Stewart told Tapper, “It was a joke, on a late-night comedy show,” adding it was “no surprise the Trump team is going to focus on this.”

GOP strategist and CNN contributor Ana Navarro counseled Giorno that the country will not get through this election cycle that Trump has done so much to plunge into a “cuckoo crazy” phase without the help of humor and liquor, “so lighten up.”

“This is not the kind of humor we want,” responded Giorno. “My candidate has Secret Service protection for a reason. There are people out there that are out to physically harm him, OK? So what we’re talking about, another presidential candidate talking about backing over him with a car – that’s not funny.”

Here’s Cruz’s “threat”: